PayPal in talks to acquire crypto custody firm as it expands digital asset capabilities

PayPal is reportedly planning to buy crypto custody firm Curv, at a price tag of between $200M and $500M, several news outlets reported.

Why should we care?
PayPal has been enhancing its crypto capabilities in recent months, launching the ability to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies this past October. Last month, the company said it was “significantly investing” in its crypto, blockchain, and digital currencies business unit, a move that will advance an extensive roadmap around these business lines. Curv, a New York-based company founded in 2018, focuses on helping clients transfer and store cryptocurrencies, and has dozens of customers, including Franklin Templeton. An acquisition would help grow PayPal’s crypto toolkit as it plans to add crypto buy, sell, and hold capabilities to Venmo in the coming months, and expands its suite of crypto offerings. The company currently partners with crypto custody firm Paxos to offer cryptocurrency purchase functions for its users. PayPal, according to some reports, began looking at Curv after talks to acquire crypto custody and trading firm BitGo fell through last year.