Payments giant PayPal is rolling out a new ‘Cryptocurrencies Hub’ that will allow certain users to hold, transfer or trade crypto assets from within the application.
PayPal updated its terms and conditions to inform new users how to establish and access the hub, which incorporates the firm’s new US dollar-backed stablecoin, PYUSD, launched last week.
“If you establish and access the Cryptocurrencies Hub, you will be able to hold a Crypto Asset balance, and buy, sell, receive, and send Crypto Assets, including in transactions where the proceeds from a sale of Crypto Assets will be used to pay for purchases through PayPal, and to convert between PYUSD and another Crypto Asset. Any balance in your Cryptocurrencies Hub represents your ownership of the amount of each Crypto Asset shown.”
In order to use the Cryptocurrencies Hub, PayPal users must have a personal PayPal account and a Balance account in good standing, plus go through a KYC (know your customer) process, which includes taxpayer identification.
PayPal says that users will not directly hold the crypto assets themselves in their “Crypto Asset balance.” Instead, Paxos or another service provider executes custody, trading and transfer services.
Last week, PayPal launched PYUSD, and Jose Fernandez da Ponte, the firm’s senior vice president of blockchain, crypto and digital currencies that the stablecoin would eventually be available for DeFi activities.
“I think DeFi (decentralized finance) will be part of the first wave in the sense that we want to go where crypto users are using stablecoins today, and DeFi is a use case for that. As of today, you can only get PYUSD on the PayPal wallet. We are ramping up the product but definitely, the intention is that it will be available in main exchanges and when that distribution is available, then folks will be able to use it for the traditional use cases.”
