PayPal Finally Allows Users to Move Their Crypto Off Platform

Key Insights:

• After nearly two years, U.S. PayPal users can move their cryptocurrencies to external wallets.
• The payments provider wants to remain competitive in the crypto sector.
• PYPL stock is up marginally but has lost 55% since the beginning of 2022.

Payments giant PayPal enabled crypto trading and holding for select users in October 2020. However, it restricted what they could do with those tokens by preventing them from leaving the platform.

On June 7, the company announced that it would finally allow users to transfer their crypto assets to external wallets.

However, as with crypto trading, the freedom of token movement is only available to select customers in the United States, according to the California-based company.

PayPal (PYPL) acknowledged that users had been requesting this feature since it enabled crypto access nearly two years ago.

Remaining Competitive

SVP and general manager of blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies at PayPal, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, told TechCrunch:

“This feature was the most demanded from our users since we began offering the purchase of crypto on our platform,”

Users can now move their Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), or other supported cryptocurrencies into exchange wallets or hardware devices. There will be network fees to pay, and PayPal will take its cut of transfers out of its ecosystem.

“If users have crypto somewhere else and want to consolidate, they can bring it to PayPal from external addresses,” Fernandez da Ponte added before confirming that “they can also send crypto to anyone who is in the PayPal system.”

The move was unavoidable if the company wanted to remain competitive in the crypto industry. Fernandez da Ponte confirmed PayPal’s ambitions in the sector, stating:

“We see ourselves as a conduit between the fiat, or traditional finance, environment and the web3 environment. We are enabling connectivity to other wallets, exchanges, and applications.”

He added that people are still adopting crypto despite the current market conditions. “This move shows we’re in this for the long term,” he said before confirming that PayPal would continue to invest in the space and “stay the course.”

U.S. PayPal users must comply with additional KYC (know-your-customer) procedures if they want to transfer crypto assets.

The move was catalyzed by the transition from a “conditional” to a “full” BitLicense following approval from the New York Department of Financial Services.

PayPal Stock Boosted

PayPal stock saw a marginal 2.5% gain on the day on June 7 to change hands for $88.31 in after-hours trading.

However, like most tech stocks, it has been hammered recently, dropping more than 55% since the beginning of the year. PYPL is down more than 70% since its all-time high of just over $300 in mid-2021.