PayPal will soon allow businesses using its digital payments platform to accept over 100 types of cryptocurrencies.
Today, the fintech company announced that it is launching a new “Pay with Cryptocurrency” feature in the coming weeks that will allow merchants to accept popular digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP. The platform will support transactions from several major cryptocurrency wallets, including Coinbase, MetaMask, and Exodus.
PayPal CEO Alex Criss said that the new feature will help businesses by speeding up transaction times and reducing fees, especially for international purchases.
“Imagine that an American clothing manufacturer received an order from someone in India for a handmade dress. In the past, they had to worry about long wait times to receive the money and high transaction rates that ate into profits,” Chris wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) today. “Not anymore. Now they can offer users the ability to pay with cryptocurrency and receive their payment almost instantly.”
When a customer pays with cryptocurrency, PayPal instantly converts the payment into a traditional currency or its own stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), and credits it to the merchant’s account. A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value by being pegged to a fiat currency such as the US dollar or a commodity such as gold or silver. PayPal’s stablecoin is pegged to the US dollar.
PayPal says it will charge only 0.99% transaction fees for crypto payments, at least until July 31, 2026. According to NerdWallet, this is lower than the usual credit card processing fee, which ranges from 1.5% to 3.5%, and can be even higher for international transactions.
PayPal is also running a promotion to encourage merchants to keep their funds in stablecoins by offering a 3.7% annualized reward for holding PYUSD.
This is the latest of PayPal’s cryptocurrency rates. The company first allowed users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies on its platform in 2020, and in 2023, it launched stablecoin.
PayPal’s interest in cryptocurrencies came amid a wave of pro-cryptocurrency policies by the Trump administration. These steps partially contributed to the growth of bitcoin to a record high of $123,000 on July 14.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed the Genius Act into law, which introduces some federal regulations on the use of stablecoins. The law requires that stablecoins be 100% backed by liquid reserve assets such as US dollars or short-term Treasury bills, and issuers are required to publicly disclose their reserves on a monthly basis.
It also establishes marketing rules to protect consumers from misleading claims by prohibiting issuers from falsely claiming that their stablecoins are backed by the U.S. government, federally insured, or considered legal tender.
