PayPal’s mobile payment company Venmo has joined the league of companies offering crypto services. The company has announced that users can now trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Venmo Joins PayPal In Offering Crypto Services
This move by Venmo is in line with its parent company PayPal’s which recently enabled users to buy crypto through its main platform.
According to the company, customers can now buy, hold and sell Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether and Bitcoin Cash from the app.
Despite today, April 20, being ‘DogeDay’ as declared on social media by fans of Dogecoin, Venmo did not include the cryptocurrency on its platform.
This latest crypto offering by Venmo is through PayPal’s partnership with Paxos Trust Company, a provider of cryptocurrency products and services.
The payment provider would also offer in-app guides and videos to help answer commonly asked questions, share information, and correct misinformation about crypto.
General manager of Venmo, Darrell Esch, while commenting on the new service noted that, unlike PayPal, Venmo has a younger audience with most of its users in their 20s and 30s.
Esch said that while there is an overlap between the customer bases of both PayPal and Venmo as most customers are either under one of them or both of them, this move would give Venmo a new group of customers who do not want to use PayPal but want to access crypto through Venmo.
Founded in 2009, the payment company disclosed that it processed around $159 billion in payments last year.
Companies Embracing Cryptocurrency
With this latest move, Venmo joins a growing list of companies and institutions that have recently embraced Bitcoin and other virtual assets.
In just a few months, the cryptocurrency space has grown significantly, with the total crypto market capitalization hitting $2 trillion in April. Bitcoin led the rally, skyrocketing 600% over the last 12 months.
Major companies have embraced cryptocurrencies in recent times, like Tesla, which started accepting Bitcoin as payments for its cars and holds some digital currency on its balance sheet. Others include payment processors, Mastercard, and VISA, trying to streamline crypto payments on their networks.
Goldman Sach’s private wealth management division global head, Mary Rich, said in an interview with CNBC recently that the company is looking into offering Bitcoin investments and other digital assets to its high-value clients.
Morgan Stanley has also started offering clients investments in the emerging asset class.
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