PayPal, which launched capabilities to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies last October, said it’s seeing strong crypto transactional activity and plans to grow a recently-launched unit dedicated to the rollout of these offerings.

Why should we care?
In its fourth-quarter earnings report, PayPal noted that it’s “significantly investing” in its crypto, blockchain, and digital currencies business unit, a move that will advance an extensive roadmap around these business lines. The company said it’s working with regulators and central banks to shape the evolution of a cashless financial system of the future. PayPal customers who purchase crypto are logging into their accounts twice as much as they were before. The company didn’t release information on how many of its customers are using the crypto capabilities, but according to one estimate, between 500,000 and a million consumers are using PayPal to trade digital assets. The company plans to allow customers to use their crypto balances as funding sources whenever they shop at PayPal’s 29 million merchants, and customers will also be able to buy, hold, and sell crypto via the Venmo app.