Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire already seems to be using PayPal to buy Bitcoin

Published at: Oct. 29, 2020

There has been significant excitement in the industry since PayPal last week announced its intention to enter the cryptocurrency market. The rollout of its new crypto services — enabling both crypto payments and direct, in-app purchases of crypto — has been officially set for early 2021.

Yet on Oct. 28, the co-founder and CEO of crypto payments firm Circle, Jeremy Allaire, claimed to have used the PayPal app to buy $100 worth of Bitcoin (BTC), tweeting a screenshot of the apparent transaction.

Bought $100 in BTC on @PayPal ! Great milestone for the market! pic.twitter.com/jsxAxTpGgK

— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) October 28, 2020

Allaire did not clarify how he had accessed the service prior to its official rollout. In correspondence with Cointelegraph, a representative from PayPal explained:

"At launch we said 'The service will be available to PayPal accountholders in the U.S. in the coming weeks,' meaning that users in the U.S. would have access over time, starting on Oct. 21." 

According to the representative, the company had shared a link in its original release for those interested to join a waitlist in order to gain access. 

As previously reported, PayPal’s crypto functionality will support Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), alongside Bitcoin. Transactions, while initiated in crypto, will be settled with the site’s affiliated merchants in their local fiat currency.

As of Q2 2020, PayPal had over 346 million active accounts and processed $222 billion in volume. Crypto payments will be supported by its estimated network of 26 million merchants around the globe as of 2021. 

Tags
Adoption
Bitcoin
Business
Cryptocurrencies
Paypal
Payments
Bitcoin Payments
Circle
Jeremy Allaire
Related Posts
Verifone to enable crypto payments at major retailers through BitPay
Crypto payments are becoming increasingly popular as Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets continue to go mainstream. This has become the case for both crypto holders and non-crypto owners who are primarily interested in the concept of using cryptocurrencies for payments. Recent data has found that 93% of crypto users surveyed would consider making purchases in crypto. The report further revealed that 59% of consumers who don’t hold crypto would be interested in using it to make purchases in the future. As such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that major payment providers like Mastercard have been ramping up their …
Adoption / Sept. 28, 2021
PayPal to start letting US customers pay in Bitcoin at global merchants
Online payments giant PayPal will start to accept cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange at its millions of global merchants, the firm’s president and CEO revealed on Tuesday ahead of a formal announcement. News broke regarding PayPal’s rumored decision to accept cryptocurrencies early on March 30. Later in the day, the firm’s CEO, Dan Schulman, confirmed to Reuters that the rumors were true and that an official statement would be released imminently. The new system is expected to feature a crypto checkout service where users can pay for goods and services at approved vendors using their stored coins. The system …
Adoption / March 30, 2021
OKCoin Exec Says PayPal Will Boost Crypto Adoption, If Rumors True
Rumors recently surfaced of mainstream payment giant PayPal adding crypto as an option on its platform. Although he had no additional information on the legitimacy of the rumors, OKCoin COO Jason Lau said digital assets on PayPal would further crypto adoption. "When a traditional player like PayPal, who has 325 million users, enters the crypto space, it is sure to have a positive impact in highlighting cryptocurrencies to a big new audience," Lau told Cointelegraph via email correspondence on June 24. PayPal rumors and job listings surface Rumors hit the web on June 22 of PayPal adding cryptocurrencies to its …
Adoption / July 1, 2020
Upcoming Apple iPhone feature to give merchants a way to accept crypto payments
Apple announced plans to launch Tap to Pay for iPhone, a new feature that effectively turns the smartphone into a point of sale (POS) device for businesses and merchants. So, what’s in it for crypto? The announcement explains that with Tap to Pay, iPhone-owning merchants receive contactless payments by using their mobile devices as a POS machine thanks to the NFC technology. According to Apple, the soon-to-be-launched Tap to Pay feature will extend support to “Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards and other digital wallets.” It basically means that, unless Apple places a direct barrier for it, customers who …
Adoption / Feb. 9, 2022
85% of merchants see crypto payments as a way to reach new customers: Survey
While the market goes steady, the crypto ecosystem continues to grow as merchants innovate and adopt cryptocurrency payments in their quest to gain new customers. Data platform PYMNTS collaborated with Bitpay to survey merchants, in an attempt to understand the trends on what participants expect from digital currencies and their effect on payments and businesses. In the report titled "Paying With Cryptocurrency," the researchers found that among businesses with an annual income of $1 billion, 85% are adopting crypto payments to find and gain new customers. On the other hand, 82% of all the merchants who participated in the survey …
Adoption / July 6, 2022