PayPal to Support Buying and Selling Select Cryptocurrencies

(Gerd Altmann/Pixabay)

In an effort to take cryptocurrencies mainstream, PayPal will soon support Bitcoin purchases.

On Wednesday, PayPal announced upcoming support for buying, holding, and selling select cryptocurrencies including Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. It will arrive on the PayPal app for US users in the coming weeks; PayPal-owned Venmo will get it in the first half of 2021.

One potential game changer here is PayPal allowing people to use crytocurrency to purchase real goods from its 26 million merchants, beginning in early 2021.

“Consumers will be able to instantly convert their selected cryptocurrency balance to fiat currency, with certainty of value and no incremental fees,” PayPal said. “In effect, cryptocurrency simply becomes another funding source inside the PayPal digital wallet.”

PayPal’s announcement is designed to help cryptocurrencies gain some mainstream adoption among its 346 million active accounts. According to PayPal, it’s only a matter of time before more financial institutions begin incorporating the technology, prompting the company to jump on board the crypto bandwagon.

“The shift to digital forms of currencies is inevitable, bringing with it clear advantages in terms of financial inclusion and access; efficiency, speed and resilience of the payments system; and the ability for governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly," PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement.

To offer the feature, the company is tapping Paxos Trust Company, which has been helping businesses add cryptocurrency trading functions to their apps. PayPal has also secured “a first-of-its-kind conditional Bitlicense,” from New York’s Department of Financial Services to run the cryptocurrency trading functions.

As PayPal begins rolling out the feature, the company is going to supply educational content to users on the risks and opportunities with cryptocurrency trading.

“There are no service fees when buying or selling cryptocurrency through December 31, 2020, and there are no fees for holding cryptocurrency in a PayPal account,” the company added.

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Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
Xbox 360 FTW
The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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