Starting today, PayPal’s U.K. customers will be able to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies through the payments provider for the first time. PayPal made the announcement on Sunday, with the U.K. thus becoming the second nation to have access to these services after the company had launched its crypto suite in the U.S. in October 2020.
The U.K. customers can now access the same four cryptocurrencies as U.S. customers, namely, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC). They can buy as little as £1 ($1.3) worth of the crypto they’re interested in and do so using their PayPal balance, bank account, or debit card through a crypto tab available on the company’s mobile app and website.
According to a senior executive for the company’s crypto division, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, the “digitization of money” during the COVID19 pandemic has played an important role in PayPal’s decisions to enter crypto. He added:
PayPal relies on Paxos to enable these new services in the U.K. Da Ponte has also said that the company will continue to work “closely with regulators in the U.K. and around the world” for its crypto services.
While the online payments giant doesn’t charge customers for holding cryptos, it does charge currency conversion and transaction fees. A fee schedule has not been made public yet.