On Paypal/Venmo soon selling crypto. Many have asked me. Here is a thread

1 / This is just a rumor for now and given the speed this company moves at, i would not be certain we see it this year
2/ Reminder:Paypal had a very hostile attitude until now with crypto users/services

3/However Paypal CEO himself declared publicly to own some Bitcoin. So he’s a believer
4/former Paypal CEO @davidmarcus is a major believer and now leads Libra (well technically Novi) and left “babies”/DNA behind
5/Paypal challengers are selling crypto. Cash, Revolut, Robinhood

6/+no sign of Bitcoin going anywhere anytime soon, so they better not ignore it.
7/Because of the nature of their license i am near certain that if they do you will not be able to “own” your crypto
8/No deposit, No withdrawal, No private keys.

9/maybe you will be able to send/receive to other paypal accounts (at best)
10/ can’t wait to see the fee model. Revolut spread is a disaster for eg. PayPal is not known for its friendly fee policy
11/ I anticipate very strong KYC/AML +low caps to what you can buy

12/If that ever happens this would be a fantastic news for the industry and will dramatically increase exposure way more than Reddit/ETH
13/ If you wanted to be the “Venmo of Crypto” think of another strategy
14/I believe we would see only BTC and 2/3 more top coins

15/Paypal will not overlap to exchanges but would be preferred by mainstream, until they realize the limits

16/One thing i doubt they will be outstanding is customer support/education. They are just too big/too slow
17/I doubt they will let businesses at first, maybe only users with a certain age and certain time within paypal (not new users)

18/who would they use to do that? I can only think of Coinbase. Coinbase is the only place where Paypal is already integrated to withdraw Fiat funds. they have a step in and the back end to serve large audiences + the custody services required

19/new tab or app? New tab probably. I don t see them doing a new app. But that means it would overwhelm their current not so great UX
20/ 1 area Paypal should triple down is stablecoins. This is an strong area of need globally and the digital dollar(ization) of the world happens

21/ not sure they will get there day 1 but would make sense as an evolution
22/ if they ever allow crypto withdrawal exepect drastic limits just like Cash App and possibly fee
23/ Can’t wait to see the regulator step in. We saw what happened with Telegram/Facebook

24/ when very large players step in, the regulator moves “fast”

25/bonus: Paypal was initially a libra association member. But backed off. Remember? It means they had clear discussions about supporting crypto.

Fin.

26/ bonus: there is a non-insignificant amount of people using Paypal for buying/selling crypto already. It s happening on things like LocalBitcoin and paxful where people settle deals p2p.

So Paypal better ride with it....

27/ btw if I had to choose I would say they would start with Venmo and not Paypal. because it is 1. less popular and more contained 2. more in tune with the audience type 3. easier to get started

28/ just realized that all this deal *could* be about, is adding a cash-in option to something like Coinbase instead of "buying crypto in Paypal". Send money in. Cash out w/paypal already exists!