PayPal intends to launch its own cryptocurrency wallet in the US within a few months. The head of the payment company, Dan Schulman, made the announcement during a Q2 2021 conference call.
According to Bloomberg, Schulman said at Investor Day of the Year in February that PayPal plans to turn its app into a financial super app - a counterpart to Alipay and WeChat Pay. It could include investment services, services for high-yield savings accounts and check cashing, among other tools.
In an interview with Decrypt in March, the head of the payment company said that PayPal expects to go beyond the usual "buy, sell and store" of cryptocurrency-related business with the launch of the new app.
During the conference call, Schulman said that the company's experts have finalised the code base for the "initial version" of the digital wallet, which will be integrated into the superapp. He said PayPal intends to fully roll out the service in the US "in the next few months".
The head of the company said the wallet will add a messaging option and "additional cryptocurrency capabilities".
PayPal had more than 400 million active users as of June 30, while the total volume of transactions in the second quarter was $311 billion.
The company-owned mobile payment service Venmo, which added support for cryptocurrencies in April, processed $58 billion worth of transactions during the reporting period, with about 76 million active accounts registered.
"We are one of the few payment companies that allow consumers to use cryptocurrency as a funding source. We are also seeing strong adoption and trading of digital assets at Venmo," Shulman added.
PayPal has allowed its customers to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies since November 2020, and from March 2021 will also allow them to pay for purchases at partner shops.
In July the company announced an increase in the limit on cryptocurrency purchases for US customers from the current $20,000 to $100,000 per week.
Recall that in May, PayPal said it would allow users to withdraw digital assets to third-party wallets.
In March, the company confirmed plans to acquire cryptocurrency storage infrastructure solutions provider Curv. The deal was scheduled to close in the first half of 2021.
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