Fintech giant PayPal has revealed that it “protects” nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency assets for its customers. Most of the assets are bitcoin and ether.
Electronic payments giant PayPal has revealed that it holds $943 million in crypto assets on behalf of customers.in a recently committed Along with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the majority of assets constitute $499 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and $362 million in Ether (ETH). The firm also holds $82 million worth of bitcoin cash (BCH) and litecoin (LTC).
The filing further indicated that as of March 31, the value of assets increased by 56%, or $339 million, from the $604 million the company disclosed in the previous quarter.
PayPal does not actually hold its customers’ crypto assets, instead relying on third-party custodial service providers. The company acknowledged that using third-party services does create liability for customers if the third party is unable to process the transaction, but said no such incidents occurred. paypal says:
As of March 31, 2023, the company has not experienced any protection loss event. Therefore, the encrypted asset protection liability and the corresponding protection assets are recorded at the same value.
PayPal, which owns Venmo, will begin offering the option to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies on its platform in October 2022, reports show. The company has since expanded its cryptocurrency services to include sending, receiving and transferring crypto assets between PayPal and PayPal. Other exchanges and crypto wallets.
We allow customers in certain markets to buy, hold, sell, receive and send certain cryptocurrencies, as well as use proceeds from cryptocurrency sales to pay for purchases at checkout. These cryptocurrencies include bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin (collectively, “our clients’ cryptoassets”).
PayPal announced in December that its customers would soon be able to buy ETH through its service, and revealed that it was developing a MetaMask web wallet integration.
In a filing with the SEC, PayPal emphasized that it meticulously keeps records of customers’ encrypted data:
We maintain internal records of our clients’ crypto assets, including the amount and type of crypto assets each of our clients own.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It does not provide or be intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.
