PayPal remained a member of this project for about four months before the payments company withdrew back in October of the year 2019, along with other payment companies like Visa and Mastercard.
PayPal’s letter detailed that the company initiated its development of crypto capabilities since 2019 when the company joined the Libra Association as a member. Several major cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase was already offering people to purchase cryptocurrencies using PayPal, however, the platform did not offer any exchange services natively.
Last month, Coindesk reported that the company was considering to add Bitcoin purchasing and selling options directly to its consumers. The payments company has a huge presence in Europe as it is licensed in Luxembourg and has operations in 31 different European jurisdictions. PayPal is currently serving nearly 95 million merchants as well as customers.
PayPal’s confirmation is significant as it has been reported that the company offers crypto buying and selling to its more than 300 million users. The company’s response to the European Commission is part of the public consultation that opened in December of last year- the European Commission wanted feedback in building a European Union framework for cryptocurrency-assets.
PayPal stated that the company is supportive of such a framework and the company also stated that blockchain and crypto-assets could help achieve greater financial inclusion and help to reduce some of the pain points that currently exist in financial services. The letter added that the company is continuously monitoring and evaluating worldwide developments in the cryptocurrency and blockchain ledger space.
The payments company also suggested that the European Union should bring clear definitions for crypto assets, and thus properly licensing as well as regulating companies in this industry. The California-headquartered company asked the regulators to bring the cryptocurrency activity under the Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism requirements.
PayPal stated that the regulatory framework should also allow for bringing innovative products as well as services to the market without undue regulatory burden while also providing guidance and safeguards. PayPal has been active in the cryptocurrency space since 2014 when the company partnered with three different bitcoin payment processors including Coinbase.
