Here’s why some analysts view PayPal’s crypto news as a “nothingburger” 🚨 This article is 4 years old...
Here’s why some analysts view PayPal’s crypto news as a “nothingburger”
2 min read
Updated: Oct. 23, 2020 at 12:27 pm UTC
PayPal made waves in the crypto market today after announcing that its users will now have the ability to buy, sell, and pay for items using digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Competitors to the platform – like Square and CashApp – have already taken steps to provide their users with this ability, but none have a user base as large as PayPal’s.
Today, the news helped secure Bitcoin’s position within the $12,000 region, with a flurry of spot-driven buying sending it all the way up towards $13,000 – setting fresh highs for 2020.
Despite this news’s overt bullishness, it is important to note that some analysts are calling it a “nothingburger” – pointing to some fine print that reveals users who buy BTC on PayPal won’t be able to withdraw it.
PayPal embraces crypto with the rollout of a new service
There have long been rumors circulating about PayPal potentially working on a crypto-related feature for their platform. Still, it was always unclear as to whether or not this product would ever come to fruition.
Today – much to the surprise of crypto users – they announced the imminent rollout of crypto trading on PayPal. One of the most interesting features of this new service is the ability to use one’s digital assets as a means of payment at over 26 million global merchants that accept PayPal.
This new service was detailed in a recent blog post from the FinTech giant:
“[PayPal] today announced the launch of a new service enabling its customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal account, and signaled its plans to significantly increase cryptocurrency’s utility by making it available as a funding source for purchases at its 26 million merchants worldwide.”
The devil is in the details: Fine print may make PayPal news a “nothingburger”
Shortly after the noise and hype surrounding this new service’s launch faded, some analysts began noticing that the fine print explains that users who buy crypto via PayPal will not be able to transfer it off of PayPal.
Popular Bitcoin analyst PlanB pointed this out in a recent tweet, stating that it is just a “nothingburger.”
“OK, we can forget this Paypal ‘news’. ‘Crypto in [the Paypal] account cannot be transferred to other accounts on or off PayPal.’ So, this is all a big PayPal nothing burger, just entries in a central PayPal database, nothing to do with Bitcoin.”
Nonetheless, this still will likely bring mainstream attention to Bitcoin and could also spur greater merchant adoption of BTC and other forms of crypto.
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Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.