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Fintech giant PayPal announced the rollout of a new payment option that will enable small U.S. businesses to accept 100 cryptocurrencies on its platform, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, and Solana, across its network.
The new feature, dubbed ‘Pay with Crypto’ and available in the coming weeks, is expected to reduce cross-border transaction fees by up to 90%.
PayPal’s New Crypto Checkout Offers Cheaper, Faster International Payments
With its new ‘Pay with Crypto’ feature, PayPal aims to solve two key barriers to global business expansion: high transaction costs and intricate payment infrastructure.
The solution enables shoppers to use crypto wallets from Coinbase, OKX, Binance, Kraken, Phantom, and MetaMask at checkout. Payments can be made with digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, and stablecoins like USDC and USDT. The tokens will first be automatically converted into PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin and then into U.S. dollars for merchants, settling the transaction almost instantaneously.
“Businesses of all sizes face incredible pressure when growing globally, from increased costs for accepting international payments to complex integrations. Today, we’re removing these barriers and helping every business of every size achieve their goals,” PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said Monday in a statement.
PayPal will start by charging a 0.99% transaction fee in the first year, which will then be increased to 1.5%, which the company argues is dramatically low compared to international credit card processing.
According to Chriss, any business, regardless of its size, can now reach a global audience more easily and affordably using PayPal’s crypto-powered tools.
“Imagine a shopper in Guatemala buying a special gift from a merchant in Oklahoma City,” he mentioned as an example. “Using PayPal’s open platform, the business can accept crypto for payments, increase their profit margins, pay lower transaction fees, get near instant access to proceeds, and grow funds stored as PYUSD at 4% when held on PayPal.”
PayPal’s Crypto Push
PayPal’s imminent rollout of its Pay with Crypto service extends its San Jose-based company’s push into crypto services.
PayPal users have been able to access crypto since late 2020, after a feature allowed users to buy, sell, and hold four cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin — but not to move the funds to external destinations. PayPal customers are now able to move such digital coins to external wallets and hardware devices.
The introduction of PYUSD in 2023 solidified PayPal’s foray into the crypto market. Roughly two years after its launch, PYSUD is now the 12th-biggest stablecoin with a market value of around $894 million, data shows.