PayPal is expanding its cryptocurrency support to the UK, allowing users to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies within its platform.
PayPal is launching the financial service in the UK after launching in the US last fall, in partnership with Paxos Trust Company.
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In spring, the company expanded the service in the US by adding it to another PayPal-owned company, Venmo.
Now, the UK will be the second country where users will be able to buy, hold and sell any amount of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash via the PayPal website, or its mobile app.
“The pandemic has accelerated digital change and innovation across all aspects of our lives— including the digitization of money and greater consumer adoption of digital financial services…” explains PayPal’s blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies VP Jose Fernandez da Ponte.
“Our global reach, digital payments expertise, and knowledge of consumer and businesses, combined with rigorous security and compliance controls provides us the unique opportunity, and the responsibility, to help people in the U.K. to explore cryptocurrency. We are committed to continue working closely with regulators in the UK, and around the world, to offer our support—and meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”
Just like in the US, the service also facilitates real-time price tracking for any of the four cryptocurrencies supported within the PayPal app itself, together with further information about risks and opportunities associated with buying and trading these particular coins.
PayPal will charge different transaction and currency conversion fees based on the amounts of cryptocurrencies being bought or sold. Whilst users can buy from as little as £1, PayPal is also establishing an initial maximum amount for any single purchase, set to £15,000, for the time being. Also, over a period of 12 months, users cannot buy cryptos worth more than £35,000 in total.
PayPal users in the UK are able to begin buying and/or trading cryptos on PayPal as of last week.