The feature — known as Checkout with Crypto — is set to expand over the coming months.
PayPal has announced that customers in the U.S. will now be able to make purchases using crypto at millions of businesses around the world.
The feature — known as Checkout with Crypto — is set to expand over the coming months.
It comes months after PayPal announced that it would allow American users to buy, sell and hold digital assets last October, with bold plans to expand this feature internationally.
Checkout with Crypto immediately converts digital assets into cash at the checkout — creating “certainty of value and no additional transaction fees.”
The option is set to flash up whenever customers have enough crypto in their account to make a purchase. PayPal’s president and CEO, Dan Schulman, said:
“As the use of digital payments and digital currencies accelerates, the introduction of Checkout with Crypto continues our focus on driving mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies, while continuing to offer PayPal customers choice and flexibility in the ways they can pay using the PayPal wallet. Enabling cryptocurrencies to make purchases at businesses around the world is the next chapter in driving the ubiquity and mass acceptance of digital currencies.”
Milestone for Adoption
PayPal’s service currently supports Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, and the payments giant hasn’t ruled out the prospect that support for more coins will be rolled out in the future.
It could be good news for crypto enthusiasts who want to make the most of some of the gains they’ve enjoyed from BTC and ETH over recent months… that is, if they’re not interested in buying a Tesla.
But there is an additional hazard for consumers in the U.S. — the fact that, at the moment, the Internal Revenue Service regards Bitcoin as property rather than currency for taxation purchases.
This means that, if your crypto rises in value and you then buy something with it, this could still amount to a taxable event.
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