PayPal made its first move with crypto offerings in the European Union (EU), choosing Luxembourg as its entry point. In the coming days, PayPal customers in the inner city will be able to buy, sell, and store digital assets in their respective PayPal accounts. Users can perform these tasks from both the mobile app and the browser. In its new market, the minimum amount PayPal users can buy cryptocurrencies for is 1 EUR (about 85 rupees).
Bitcoin, Litecoin, bitcoin cashas well as ether were selected as the first four crypto assets to be backed by PayPal in Luxemburg.
The company is also willing to work with the Luxembourg authorities to shape the industry digital assets to keep it in line with existing financial systems.
“The launch of this service offers Luxembourg customers a new way of exploring cryptocurrency they know their way around the PayPal environment. The addition of Luxembourg is an important step in PayPal’s mission to make digital currencies more accessible,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, SVP and GM, Blockchain, Crypto & Digital Currencies, PayPal in one official statement.
PayPal’s timing to expand its crypto business into the EU seems like a pretty calculated decision.
The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament had already agreed to this in October MiCA legislation. The draft MiCA rule list, first proposed in September 2020, aims to create consistency legal crypto framework for all 27 EU countries.
The legislation is expected to be rolled out across the EU by 2024, giving companies like PayPal ample time to comply with EU norms and fine-tune their operations accordingly.
As for PayPal, the company has taken steps to understand that crypto industry and expand related services in several of its markets.
In February, the payment processor had appointed a special council to act as advisors on digital currencies, cryptocurrencies, and so on Blockchain Technology.
PayPal first began operating in the crypto sector in the US two years ago in 2020, allowing its US users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.
Later in September 2021 the company will started Cryptocurrency trading on the platform in the UK market.
