“This is the first time you can seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the same way as a credit card or a debit card inside your PayPal wallet,” Dan Schulman, CEO and President of PayPal told Reuters ahead of a formal announcement. According to the payments giant, Checkout with Crypto “significantly expands” the usefulness of cryptocurrencies in everyday commerce and builds on the ability for PayPal users to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies. For those unaware, PayPal had already let users buy, sell and hold select cryptocurrencies directly through PayPal. But with the new ‘Checkout with Crypto’ service, users can now use it for purchases by checking out safely and easily, converting cryptocurrency holdings to fiat currency with the certainty of value and no additional transaction fees. “As the use of digital payments and digital currencies accelerates, the introduction of Checkout with Crypto continues our focus on driving mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies, while continuing to offer PayPal customers choice and flexibility in the ways they can pay using the PayPal wallet,” Schulman said in a blog post. “Enabling cryptocurrencies to make purchases at businesses around the world is the next chapter in driving the ubiquity and mass acceptance of digital currencies.”
Checkout with Crypto option will automatically appear in the PayPal wallet at checkout for customers with sufficient cryptocurrency balance to cover an eligible purchase. Customers will be able to select cryptocurrency of their choice – Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, or Bitcoin Cash, depending on what they are holding with PayPal and the balances available in each cryptocurrency. However, users will be able to select only one type of cryptocurrency for each purchase they make. Once the purchase is confirmed by the customer, the cryptocurrency is converted to fiat currency by PayPal on the customer’s behalf and the transaction is completed. The customer will receive a record of both the crypto sale, as well as the purchased item. PayPal charges no transaction fee to checkout with crypto – a cryptocurrency conversion spread will be built into the conversion from crypto to USD. Effective March 30, 2021, PayPal has rolled out the new ‘Checkout with Crypto’ option for its customers in the U.S. and plans to expand it to more businesses over the coming months.
