 can now buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies through PayPal beginning from this week.){kind=link}
Residents of the United Kingdom (UK) can buy, hold and sell crypto through PayPal from this week. This makes a significant milestone for the payment giant that began offering its digital asset services about a year ago.
The global payments provider announced yesterday that the residents of the United Kingdom can access Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash through PayPal’s website. They can also access it through the PayPal mobile app. This also makes the United Kingdom the second country where PayPal offers its crypto services other than the United States.
PayPal had started offering crypto services in the United States in November last year.
Jose Fernandez da Ponte is a senior executive for PayPal’s crypto division who cited the “digitization of money”. He stated that the pandemic was one of the primary motivations for entering crypto in the first place.
He added:
“Our global reach, digital payments expertise, and knowledge of consumer and businesses, combined with rigorous security and compliance controls provides us the unique opportunity, and the responsibility, to help people in the U.K. to explore cryptocurrency.”
Through this new addition, PayPal can increase exposure to digital assets in the UK. Moreover, PayPal has the highest concentration of active users in the United Kingdom, with over 2 million active users.
Rumors about PayPal’s crypto expansion plans were growing since last month. This is because PayPal CEO Dan Schulman told investors that the United Kingdom will likely get the service soon. Moreover, the company is also looking at developments in the DeFi space as a major milestone for future integration plans.
On the other hand, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is cracking down on crypto exchanges that don’t meet its registration requirements.