Aspiriant's managing director Sandi Bragar claims that payment giant PayPal is currently working on making it possible for merchants to accept cryptocurrency on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
It's at the forefront of all the e-commerce and digital payments. [...] We also like that PayPal is working with merchants to bring crypto into the fold, and we think that’s gonna be really important as cryptocurrencies become more mainstream in the years ahead.
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This, in her view, makes the company's stock attractive to investors.
PayPal's recent pivot to crypto
Tongues started waggling about PayPal launching a service for purchasing and storing crypto in June.
In a letter later disclosed to the European Commission, the $208 bln company shed more light on its cryptocurrency ambitions:
Of particular interest for us is how these technologies and crypto-assets can be utilized to achieve greater financial inclusion and help reduce/eliminate some of the pain points that exist today in financial services.
Over the past few months, PayPal has also been hiring blockchain engineers to develop its cryptocurrency capabilities.
Bragar did not provide any details on new cryptocurrency-related services for merchants that PayPal is allegedly working on.
Alex DovbnyaDisrupt or be disrupted
PayPal has not been sleeping on the crypto hype. Back in 2014, when Bitcoin was still relatively obscure, it partnered with BitPay and Coinbase to make it possible for merchants to accept Bitcoin for digital goods.
Moreover, PayPal's Daniel Schulman confessed to personally owning Bitcoin in 2020.
PayPal is notorious for blackballing many merchants from "vice" industries, making them turn to crypto as a payment solution.
The general public still prefers centralized payment solutions because of their convenience. If Bitcoin does manage to scale to become a viable means of payment, it could pose an existential threat to PayPal.
Tomiwabold Olajide
Yuri Molchan
