Industry reports suggest that PayPal is eyeing the acquisition of crypto custodian provider Curv. Is PayPal planning to attract institutional players ahead this year?
On Tuesday, March 2, an Israeli new publication Calcalist first reported that payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL) is seeking fresh acquisition of Curv, a digital asset custody firm. PayPal is making aggressive moves in the crypto space after its official announcement last year in October 2020.
Founded in 2018, Curv has specialized in offering crypto custodial solutions to its clients. Besides, it uses special encryption technology based on multi-party computation (MPC) to secure digital assets. So far, PayPal has raised nearly $30 million from that involves $23 million fundraise in Series A in mid-2020.
Some of the big names investing in Curv include Commerzbank Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Team8 and Digital Garage Lab Fund. Confirming the latest news, another source familiar with the matter told CoinDesk:
“PayPal is buying Curv for $500 million. From where I’m hearing it, I’m pretty sure it’s true.”
Acquisition of Curv Is a New Step of PayPal in Its Aggressive Push in Crypto Space
PayPal has leapfrogged other competitors in the crypto space after it started crypto trading service in the U.S. in November 2020. PayPal launched its crypto trading service just at a time when the crypto market was exploding during Q4 2020.
With a customer base of millions-of-users, PayPal saw a sharp uptick in the number of users opting for its crypto trading services. While unveiling the Q4 2020 results, PayPal acknowledged that crypto integration helped the company boost its revenue. PayPal also noted that it is building a ‘superapp’ integrating digital wallets that can serve more customers across payments and financial services.
PayPal has also announced that it is planning to offer crypto trading services to its customers worldwide. During Q1 2021, PayPal is planning to bring crypto product offerings to its UK residents. Furthermore, it is also planning to bring crypto payment services to its 29 million customers worldwide.
With all these developments in the pipeline, having a cryptocurrency custodial solution makes sense for PayPal. Besides, offering crypto custody services will attract institutional players along with its massive retail user-base. However, Curv is not the first crypto custodian acquisition attempt by PayPal.
The company previously was in talks to acquire crypto custodian giant BitGo. However, it seems that the deal didn’t go through as planned for the payments giant.
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