Introduction – How is PayPal becoming a Cryptocurrency App?

PayPal is a trusted online payment platform that ensures secure transactions for online purchases and money transfers. By linking your bank account, credit card, or debit card to your PayPal account, you can make payments at participating online retailers while keeping your financial information protected. Acting as an intermediary, PayPal safeguards your payment details during transactions.

Recently, PayPal has taken significant steps toward becoming a comprehensive crypto super app. Its latest developments suggest that the financial tech giant is paving the way for a strong presence in the cryptocurrency market.

Here are three new strategies PayPal is implementing that indicate its potential to transform into a leading crypto super app.

PayPal and its Stablecoin PYUSD

The PYUSD stablecoin recently reached a peak of over $1 billion in market cap on September 10, just 383 days after its launch.

However, according to the latest data from DefiLlama, the total market cap of PYUSD has now decreased to approximately $860 million.

US Markets are opening for Crypto?

For US customers looking to spend their crypto gains online, PayPal offers a seamless solution, allowing payments with cryptocurrency across its network of 10.9 million US-based merchants.

At checkout, users can simply select "Pay with PayPal" and choose the crypto token they wish to spend. PayPal then converts the crypto to fiat and pays merchants in USD.

By simplifying the shift to cryptocurrency and integrating PYUSD as a core feature, PayPal is positioning itself as a major player in the crypto space, while also capitalizing on this growing market.

With PayPal and Venmo's combined 355.8 million user base, they have the potential to convert a significant portion into PYUSD holders, creating competition with Tether (USDT), which currently has 6 million token holders.

Recent reports show that Tether earned $6.2 billion in profits in 2023, surpassing BlackRock's $5.5 billion.

Ethereum addresses on PayPal

The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) recently announced that major payment platforms PayPal and Venmo have integrated support for ENS domain names. This integration allows users to send crypto assets directly to an ENS address using either platform.

ENS shared the news via their X account, highlighting that the feature is now available, starting in the USA. According to the ENS team, this update significantly enhances the ease and security of crypto transfers for millions of users.

With PayPal’s 278 million US-based users and Venmo’s 77.7 million, the integration introduces a vast number of potential new users to Ethereum-based transactions. For context, Ethereum had nearly 14 million active addresses in August, with over 400,000 active addresses recorded on August 9, according to Glassnode data.

So basically, this means PayPal and Venmo’s US-based users (278.10M and 77.7M) will now be able to send platform-supported Ethereum-based tokens to ENS addresses.