​​PayPal Launches Crypto Pay Services in US for Bitcoin, Ether | Gimme The Coin

​​PayPal Launches Crypto Pay Services in US for Bitcoin, Ether, Altcoins

The payments giant PayPal – widely credited with inadvertently sparking the current crypto bull run last year with its major crypto move – has announced the launch of a service that will allow its customers to pay with cryptoassets such as bitcoin (BTC).

In a press release, the firm stated that its latest move would “significantly expand the utility of cryptocurrency,” and would be “available at millions of global online businesses.” It further stated that the service would be “continuing to expand over the coming months.”

Like its last move, which allowed offering account holders the ability to buy, sell, and (almost) hold crypto on its platform, the new service – named Checkout with Crypto – has initially only been made available in the United States.

However, the innovation, which debuts today, will also allow for conversions from crypto to fiat at the transaction stage, with the company adding that “converting cryptocurrency holdings to fiat currency at checkout,” would be enabled. This fact, it said, will allow “certainty of value and no additional transaction fees.”

The firm claimed that its new services would allow firms and individuals to receive payments in crypto and its CEO Dan Schulman was quoted as stating,

“Enabling cryptocurrencies to make purchases at businesses around the world is the next chapter in driving the ubiquity and mass acceptance of digital currencies.”

The company said that its new service supports bitcoin, as well as litecoin (LTC), ethereum (ETH) and bitcoin cash (BCH) “depending on what customers are holding with PayPal and the balances available in each cryptocurrency.”

And PayPal added that a “cryptocurrency conversion spread will be built into the conversion from crypto to USD.”