Nearly one-fifth of PayPal users have already traded bitcoin using the PayPal app, according to a report published Tuesday by Mizuho Securities and obtained by CoinDesk.
- Per the Mizuho survey, about 65% would use Bitcoin as a currency at PayPal's 28 million merchants. 17% of users have already used the app to buy and sell bitcoin.
- Bitcoin exuberance boosts user engagement, the survey found, with bitcoin traders reporting more than 3 times higher usage frequency compared with non-bitcoin traders. They also held larger cash balances, the survey found.
- "About 50% of PayPal Bitcoin traders reported increased usage of the PayPal app after beginning to trade Bitcoin," the survey found. "This compares with just 9% who reported reduced engagement."
- The survey comes over a month after PayPal announced its plans to support bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as CoinDesk reported at the time, and only a few weeks after the payments firm removed the waitlist to access the service, citing overwhelming demand.
- But converting non-Bitcoin traders into cryptocurrency users is a challenge for PayPal, the survey found. Only 8% of non-Bitcoin traders said they would play to trade the leading cryptocurrency in the future on PayPal's app. 42% said they "don't know yet," according to Mizuho.
- Citing the results of the survey, the firm raised its stock trading target on PayPal to $290 per share. It wasn't immediately known what the prior target was. In recent trading, shares of PayPal were up about 2.37% to $219.20.
The story is developing and will be updated when more information is known.