Major US Crypto Exchange Coinbase Adds Cash Withdrawals to PayPal

Major American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has introduced free of charge cash withdrawals to online payment system PayPal, according to an announcement published Dec. 14.

From now on, Coinbase’s United States-based customers are able to withdraw their cash balances to Paypal. The service for other countries will reportedly be rolled out some time in 2019.

Coinbase and PayPal previously integrated in 2016, when Coinbase added support for the payment platform in addition to major credit cards. At the time, Coinbase users were able to sell Bitcoin (BTC) and have their fiat funds deposited to a PayPal wallet. The integration was subsequently terminated due to technical difficulties.

With this move, Coinbase has enhanced its range of services, which has been actively expanding over the past several months. This month, the exchange began “exploring” the possibility of providing trading support for 31 cryptocurrencies. Potential new additions include Ripple (XRP), EOS and Cardano (ADA). Coinbase “will be working with local banks and regulators to add them in as many jurisdictions as possible.”

As Cointelegraph reported in September, Coinbase announced a new process that will purportedly allow it to list more digital assets faster. Issuers who want to submit tokens at Coinbase via the newly adopted process will have to use a special form, which will subsequently be evaluated by the exchange team against their digital asset framework.

In November, Coinbase launched over-the-counter (OTC) trading for institutional customers. Christine Sandler, head of sales at Coinbase, revealed that the OTC service is likely to be combined with Coinbase Custody, a service crypto custodian tool for institutional investors launched on July 2, 2018.

In March, PayPal  filed a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to increase the speed of cryptocurrency payments. The patent describes an “Expedited Virtual Currency Transaction System”, involving the use of secondary private keys to shorten wait times for transactions between consumers and merchants.