PayPal will soon let businesses that use its digital payments platform accept more than 100 types of cryptocurrency.
The fintech company announced today that it’s rolling out a new “Pay with Crypto” feature in the coming weeks, allowing merchants to accept popular digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP. The platform will support transactions from several major crypto wallets, including Coinbase, MetaMask, and Exodus.
PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said the new feature will help businesses by speeding up transaction times and reducing fees, particularly for international purchases.
“Imagine a U.S.-based clothing maker received an order from someone in India for a handmade gown. They used to have to worry about long wait times to receive their money and high transaction rates eating into profits,” wrote Chriss in a post on X (formerly Twitter) today. “Not anymore. Now they can offer users the ability to pay with crypto and receive their payment almost instantly.”
When a customer pays with crypto, PayPal will instantly convert the payment into either traditional currency or its own stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), and deposit it in the merchant’s account. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies meant to maintain a stable value by being tied to a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar or a commodity such as gold or silver. PayPal’s stablecoin is pegged to the U.S. dollar.
PayPal says it will charge just a 0.99% transaction fee for crypto payments, at least until July 31, 2026. That’s lower than the typical credit card processing fee, which ranges from 1.5% to 3.5%, according to NerdWallet — and can be even higher for international transactions.
PayPal is also running a promotion to encourage merchants to store their funds in its stablecoin, offering 3.7% in annual rewards on holdings of PYUSD.
This is the latest in PayPal’s crypto bets. The company first started allowing users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies on its platform in 2020, and it launched its stablecoin in 2023.
PayPal’s current interest in crypto comes amid a wave of pro-crypto policies under the Trump administration. These moves have partly driven Bitcoin’s surge to a record high of $123,000 on July 14.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act into law, which introduced some federal regulations on the use of stablecoins. The law requires stablecoins to be fully backed 100% by liquid reserve assets such as U.S. dollars or short-term Treasury bills, with issuers being required to make monthly public disclosures of their reserve holdings.
It also imposes marketing rules to protect consumers from deceptive claims, prohibiting issuers from falsely suggesting their stablecoins are backed by the U.S. government, federally insured, or considered legal tender.
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