The Venmo logo displayed on a smartphone.
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With PayPal’s Venmo mobile payments app, users can now buy, hold and sell bitcoin and other digital tokens, potentially an important step towards mainstreaming cryptocurrencies.
Starting Tuesday, Venmo will show users a new feature that allows them to invest in four different cryptocurrencies – bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash – with a minimum spend requirement of $ 1. They can also share their crypto purchases with friends via the social feed. Venmo.
The development expands into a first step of PayPal to allow users to purchase crypto through the main platform. More recently, the company began letting people use their crypto holdings to pay with millions of online sellers worldwide.
With over 70 million users, Venmo is one of the most popular digital payment services in the U.S. It is especially popular among younger Americans who use the app to make payments or split purchases with friends and family. It competes with Square’s Cash app.
“No matter where you are in your cryptocurrency journey, crypto on Venmo helps our community learn and explore cryptocurrencies on a trusted platform and directly in the app they know and love,” said Darrell Esch, a senior vice president. and general manager of Venmo.
Esch added, “Our goal is to provide our customers with an easy-to-use platform that simplifies the process of buying and selling cryptocurrencies and demystifies some of the common questions and misconceptions that consumers may have.”
Bitcoin and other digital currencies have risen in price in 2021 as a result of increased interest from institutional investors, while large companies such as Tesla and PayPal have also made significant strides in the space. Tesla bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin earlier this year and is now accepting it as payment for its cars.
PayPal, meanwhile, has stepped up its investments in cryptocurrency. Last month, the payment giant said it had agreed to purchase Curv, a start-up helping customers securely store their digital tokens, for nearly $ 200 million. It has also established a new business unit focused on blockchain, which Curv will join.
Venmo said the crypto feature was developed in partnership with blockchain infrastructure company Paxos, which has also used PayPal for its other digital assets initiatives. PayPal was licensed to participate in crypto activities by New York regulators last year.
While bitcoin bulls see it as a store of value resembling gold, not everyone is convinced of the digital currency’s stunning comeback – it previously dropped as low as $ 3,122 in 2018 after rising to nearly $ 20,000 a year earlier. Skeptical economists see bitcoin as a bubble waiting to burst.