Crypto Comes to Venmo, Fiat-to-Crypto Payments to be Enabled from May Onwards

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On April 28, PayPal executive Jose Fernandez da Ponte announced that beginning in May, customers of the mobile payments service Venmo could purchase cryptocurrencies and transmit them to other Venmo users or external wallets. Venmo is a subsidiary owned and operated by PayPal. 

During an interview with Consensus 2023 titled "PayPal's Next Chapter in Crypto," da Ponte unfolded how the new feature would function: "Starting in May, we will be enabling on-chain transfers from Venmo wallets. This means that you will be able to purchase crypto on Venmo and send it to another Venmo user, you will be able to send it to a PayPal user, you will be able to send it to an external wallet, and you will be able to send it to your wallet." According to the CEO, adding this feature would provide users of Venmo more options to choose from; a strategy that, when applied to PayPal, was met with great success. It would also give a use case for digital assets because now cryptocurrency will be used for rapid and free near-instant transfers between Venmo wallets and PayPal wallets, effectively connecting two of the known networks and wallets in the US.

On the Venmo website, a help page dated April 28 explains that verified users will soon be able to receive crypto payments from external addresses by scanning a "crypto address QR code." In April 2021, Venmo began enabling users to make purchases with cryptocurrencies, and the mobile app presently provides Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) as alternatives for users to choose from. It would appear that the desktop version does not support any crypto features.

PayPal has teamed up with other businesses to increase the scope of its crypto services. The payment provider merged with MetaMask in December, letting customers buy crypto with PayPal and have it delivered to their self-custodial wallets.

Shashank is the founder of yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash