Bitcoin in PayPal accounts ready to regain its freedom

By: Bharggavi Ssayee

May 29, 2021 7:34 AM

Bitcoin held in PayPal and Venmo accounts will no longer be held captive. The company plans to allow transfers to third-party wallets.

PayPal's ambitions in the cryptocurrency space are great. The company launched a new crypto service in 2020. This allows you to buy various currencies, including Bitcoin. However, tokens cannot be transferred outside of the PayPal universe.

This limitation is however on the way to disappear. This is the meaning of the announcement made by the blockchain and crypto director of the American firm at the Consensus conference. Support for third-party wallets is on the program, confirms Jose Fernandez da Ponte.

A system "as open as possible"

Clearly, Bitcoin acquired through PayPal or Venmo, its mobile service, can be transferred to a third-party platform, in particular to be resold. These third-party wallets indeed include exchanges like Coinbase.

Should we fear some restrictions, however, as on Revolut which recently opened Bitcoin transfers? "We want to make it as open as possible," promises the head of PayPal.

The firm's philosophy is to “give our consumers a choice. And that includes the possibility for them to freely dispose of their crypto. So, "we want them to be able to take the crypto they bought from us and bring it to any destination they want," says Jose Fernandez da Ponte.

So much for the intention. PayPal is not communicating details at this time. The company also does not specify a timeline for the opening of this future functionality to transfer cryptocurrencies to third parties.

No launch date for BTC transfers

“We understand that these tokens are more useful if they can be moved. We are therefore studying the possibility of allowing people to transfer cryptocurrencies to and from their PayPal address, "the blockchain boss is limited for the time being.

The firm will have to bring together its various partners to make this promise a reality. It does not currently have its own blockchain infrastructure. PayPal relies in particular on Paxos for its operations.

But as Decrypt points out, thanks to the acquisition of Curv in 2021, PayPal could also decide to design its own infrastructure to control the entire value chain. It remains to come to an agreement with the third-party wallet providers on the conditions of their interconnection. However, there is no shortage of rivalries.