The PayPal Vice President assured that crypto investors will have the possibility to make their withdrawals using third-party wallets. The PayPal executive also sounded optimistic about CBDC roll-outs worldwide.
In a big development, payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PYPL) is soon planning to allow its customers to withdraw their crypto to third-party wallets. Speaking at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2021 conference on Wednesday, May 25, PayPal’s blockchain lead Jose Fernandez da Ponte made the disclosure.
PayPal first started its crypto trading facility in the US last year in November 2020. The company also registered a major surge in its revenue of Q1 2021 owing to crypto transactions. However, at present, PayPal doesn’t let its customers move their digital currencies off-platform. Speaking at the conference, da Ponte said:
“We want to make it as open as possible, and we want to give choice to our consumers, something that will let them pay in any way they want to pay. They want to bring their crypto to us so they can use it in commerce, and we want them to be able to take the crypto they acquired with us and take it to the destination of their choice.”
PayPal on Crypto and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
During the interview, da Ponte also expressed his views on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The PayPal Vice President said that he has held meetings with central banks worldwide. Talking in favor of CBDCs, da Ponte said that “it absolutely makes sense that central banks will issue their own tokens”.
The PayPal executive also added that central banks’ two big priorities are universal access and financial stability. The executive said that there are several ways to achieve this stability using digital currencies. One is through the way of having CBDCs and other is having a stablecoin backed with fiat currency. Besides, he also shrugged off the debate going between CBDCs and stablecoins. Ponte added:
“Sometimes we position the debate as CBDCs versus stablecoins, but it’s a bit of a fake debate. There is no trade-off. We think they will co-exist.”
However, da Ponte asserted that on the subject of CBDCs, there still a lot of work required. “On the subject of CBDCs, there are a lot of Powerpoints written, but not a lot of code written.”
Ponte also sees PayPal as a natural collaborator with central banks to distribute CBDCs to the public. Currently, the digital currency adoption rate stands at just 2% of the global population. “But 10% adoption is where it gets really interesting when it gets beyond the early adopters,” adds da Ponte.