By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
The service has officially been rolled out to select PayPal users within the United States, with more expected in the coming weeks.
Digital payments platform PayPal has announced a new partnership with Web3 wallet MetaMask. According to the Wednesday announcement, the integration will enable MetaMask users to buy or transfer the second-most-popular cryptocurrency, Ether ETH.
For a start, the service is currently available, only to a select few PayPal users within the United States. This may be because the US represents one of MetaMask’s largest markets in terms of users in the region. However, a wider rollout to all US-based users, is expected in the coming weeks.
PayPal Integrates with MetaMask
This collaboration is something that will produce similar results as seen in existing PayPal’s checkout feature on some online stores like eBay and Etsy. That is, users may simply transfer or buy ETH in some three easy steps.
Firstly, they log onto their MetaMask app. Then they tap the “buy” button, where they are redirected to their PayPal account. Finally, they log in to their PayPal account, to complete the intended transaction.
Meanwhile, MetaMask product manager, Lorenzo Santos, had some things to say about the partnership. He says the benefits are beyond just crypto and may offer an avenue to advance Web 3.0 technology. Santos said:
“This integration with PayPal will allow our US users to not just buy crypto seamlessly through MetaMask, but also to easily explore the Web3 ecosystem.”
For what it’s worth, Santos’ statement may not be far from the truth. Crypto wallets such as MetaMask often open up ways to interact with Web 3.0 applications including play-to-earn (P2E) games and some metaverse platforms. Therefore, it is only expected that integrating PayPal with MetaMask should widely expose some of these applications to both user bases.
Budding Relationship with Crypto
For PayPal, this new partnership is not its first foray into the crypto space. The payments platform has tried its hands on crypto in so many ways over the past few years.
Recall that back in 2020, it opened up access for users on its platform to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency. It took it a notch further in 2021, adding the “checkout with crypto” feature that supported Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Additionally, in October, PayPal was one of the payment companies that filed crypto trademark applications with USPTO.