PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL.O) said on Monday that clients in the United Kingdom would be able to buy, trade, and hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies beginning this week.
Following the debut of PayPal’s crypto service in the United States last October, the United Kingdom is the company’s first foreign market.
Now henceforth, PayPal’s clients in the United Kingdom will be able to trade and hold four cryptocurrencies, similar to those in the United States: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), and bitcoin cash (BCH).
Paxos, which serves as a market maker and custody provider, is the company’s crypto partner for the U.K. service. According to a company spokesman who refused to provide a launch date, PayPal presently does not enable withdrawals to external wallets, but the firm is looking into it.
PayPal’s crypto services in the U.K
PayPal customers may begin investing in cryptocurrency with as low as £1 or $1, but the maximum investment amount is limited. According to the spokesman, users in the United Kingdom will be unable to buy bitcoin valued at more than £15,000 each week. According to them, the maximum sum for purchases during 12 months is £35,000. However, in the United States, the weekly crypto buying cap is $100,000.
PayPal customers in the United States may also purchase using cryptocurrency, even though not directly. Users must sell their crypto assets first and pay PayPal merchants in fiat money. In the United States, PayPal’s Venmo payments software now enables users to purchase, trade, and store cryptocurrency. Venmo is not accessible in the United Kingdom.
PayPal’s crypto trade volumes are unknown, as is the amount of money the firm earns from its crypto service. PayPal, unlike Square and Robinhood, does not provide financial information about its crypto business.
PayPal is involved in the crypto investing sector in addition to offering a crypto trading service. TaxBit, TRM Labs, and Talos, among others, have received funding from the company’s venture capital arm. PayPal also bought Curve, a crypto-security company, earlier this year.
