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PayPal now allows its merchants to accept Bitcoin

PayPal now allows all its merchants to accept Bitcoin. The good news was “shared” via a filing recently submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The document states that a merchant using PayPal can “integrate with Braintree to begin accepting payments with credit or debit cards, PayPal, Venmo, digital currencies such as Bitcoin, or other payment solutions with a single integration.” The original filing reads:-

“A merchant can typically open a standard PayPal account and begin accepting payments through PayPal within a few minutes. Most online or mobile merchants can onboard quickly and are not required to invest in new or specialized hardware. Our Payments Platform supports growth with a variety of value-added services designed to help businesses of all sizes manage their cash flow, invoice clients, pay bills, and reduce the need for merchants to receive and store sensitive customer financial information. For our standard service, we do not charge merchants setup or recurring fees. A merchant can also integrate with Braintree to begin accepting payments with credit or debit cards, PayPal, Venmo, digital currencies such as Bitcoin, or other payment solutions with a single integration.”

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The integration of Bitcoin was announced after PayPal announced the decision to split from its former parent company eBay due to massive changes in the commerce and payments landscape and the fact that “each business faces different competitive opportunities and challenges.” The separation, agreed in September 2014, will become effective before the end of this year.

“As independent companies, we expect eBay and PayPal will be sharper and stronger, and more focused and competitive as leading, standalone companies in their respective markets. eBay and PayPal also will benefit from additional flexibility and agility to pursue new market and partnership opportunities,” the SEC filing explains.

The split comes with rules. While PayPal Inc. can’t create its own marketplace for physical goods, eBay inc. cannot develop a payment processing system. However, the current CEO of eBay, John Donahoe, has said that the split will give both companies more flexibility. Donahoe has also announced he will leave eBay to become chairman of PayPal.

It was also in September 2014 that PayPal firstly announced it would accept Bitcoin via Braintree, allowing merchants specialized in digital content like ebooks and games to accept BTC. At the time the integration was exclusively made through the PayPal Payment’s Hub, a platform developed by Zong, a company previouly acquired by PayPal.

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7 comments on “PayPal now allows its merchants to accept Bitcoin”

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  1. Crypto Redeemer

    Just the piece of content I’ve been searching for, I wonder if this would be an easier tactic to buy bitcoin using Paypal.

    1. Alexander Reed

      Then there’s still no easy way to use your Paypal balance to buy Bitcoins. There is a “hack” if you lived in the US.

  2. I can’t see why – it’s direct competition for them – unless they’re thinking that BTC is dying and “let’s keep our clients and pretend we’re in on it”??? else why would they? Would be nice though to be able to buy BTC this way, but I’m sceptical here.

    1. Alexander Reed

      I guess they understand that they can’t beat Bitcoin so they are trying to at least allow it and avoid merchants abandoning their services. And yes, buying Bitcoin with PayPal has been an issue for a lloooooonnnnggg time.

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