CoinShares chief strategy officer Meltem Demirors says PayPal’s move into crypto likely foreshadows the development of PayPal’s own native token.
On Wednesday, payment services giant and Venmo owner, PayPal, announced that it would offer its users the ability to purchase, sell and store Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum on its platform in the near future.
The CSO of CoinShares, a London-based digital asset investment firm, says this move indicates PayPal is not far from launching its own native currency which could rival BTC.
In an interview with CNBC, Demirors provides her insights on what PayPal’s initial crypto ecosystem will look like and the prospects of a PayPal token.
“The important thing to remember is that in this initial iteration of this offering, it’s really gonna be a walled garden meaning that cryptocurrencies are not gonna leave the PayPal environment. So nobody is bringing in crypto from outside the PayPal environment it’s sort of an internal ecosystem.
And eventually I think this is paving the way for PayPal launching its own cryptocurrency. If you recall PayPal was part of the initial Facebook Libra consortium. They dropped out this time last year actually and so I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next 6-12 months we see PayPal launching its own digital currency similar to the digital dollar that we see in many payments companies in the Asia Pacific Region in particular.”
The rumor that PayPal may launch its own token was further fueled by Bloomberg Radio Host and TV Anchor, Carol Massar, who tweeted out to her 21.5K followers that PayPal was said to be in talks to buy crypto firms including California-based BitGo.
