Back in 2017, when cryptocurrency market was at its peak in December, payment processing firm Square hit news headlines by announcing Bitcoin trading facility through its mobile app.
Along similar lines, its competitor Venmo, a firm owned by PayPal, is rolling out cryptocurrency trading facility for four top tokens namely Ether (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Starting on Tuesday and expected to be broadly available within the forthcoming weeks, Venmo’s more than 70 million clients will be able to purchase, retain and sell cryptocurrencies straightaway using the Venmo app.
Within the app are provided the suggestions to enable them to easily steer through the crypto trading domain.
The guidelines will also permit them to share their cryptocurrency platform usage experiences through the Venmo feed.
Using Venmo account balance or through the linked bank account or even via debit card, the platform users will be able to purchase cryptos. The minimum amount of purchase is stipulated as $1.
As per the company’s research report providing insights into customer behavior last year, more than 30% of Venmo clients have already started buying cryptos or equities.
Among them, 20% made their purchase during the Covid-19 outbreak, indicating that the overall deterioration in health combined with economic crisis has expedited the trends of digitization and trial of disruptive financial technologies.
The Venmo platform supports cryptocurrency buying and selling through a partnership with Paxos Trust Company, which offers crypto related products such as stablecoin and related services. Notably, Paxos is a regulated firm. Venmo owner PayPal also holds conditional Bit license from New York State Department of Financial Services.
Therefore, PayPal is allowed only to join hands with companies that have received complete licenses and Paxos fulfills the criteria.
Just a week back, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman gave an indication of developments that are currently going on since the payments company initially started providing cryptocurrency related services in the US last November.
Schulman stated that the firm intends to assist mass adoption of cryptos and even make use of smart contracts and other advanced features of blockchain technology.
He also highlighted the company’s aim of capitalizing on cryptocurrencies for achieving an “inclusive economy,” in which “things will be done much differently than today.”
