Bitcoin and the entire crypto space have had a spectacular year so far, and the 2021 bull run continues. Bitcoin, ethereum, and even meme coins like doge have climbed to all-time highs at various points throughout the year, and others are expected to continue to surge in the coming months. Increased interest from retail investors, the involvement of multiple institutions, the NFT phenomenon, are all factors that might have fueled the growth of bitcoin. The infusion of cash into the economy to prop up industry sectors and people who lost their jobs during the pandemic can also explain the crypto bull run. After all, when bitcoin goes up, everything else follows.
Coinbase, one of the world’s most popular exchanges where people can buy and sell various digital coins, has recently gone public, with IPO documentation highlighting the impressive year the company had so far, thanks to the current bull run. Separately, PayPal started supporting crypto purchases on its platform for four distinct cryptocurrencies late last year. A few weeks ago, it rolled out a new feature that lets people pay for goods by exchanging their digital coins for fiat currency in the app. The two companies have joined forces to roll out a new feature. Coinbase now lets customers buy crypto on the exchange using PayPal.
If you want to purchase bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, and bitcoin cash, then you don’t have to leave PayPal to do it. But Coinbase offers plenty of other popular cryptocurrencies that PayPal doesn’t support.
Before integrating PayPal, Coinbase supported various payment options, including debit cards and transfers from bank accounts. These options will remain in place, but they have a few drawbacks that PayPal might fix. First of all, bank and wire transfers might take time, which can be a problem in a highly volatile market. PayPal can fix that, as it can offer instant payment support for crypto purchases.
Coinbase also explained in its blog that PayPal support brings over an additional feature, an extra layer of security, something that customers might value. Instead of giving Coinbase your debit card and bank account information, you can use PayPal to act as the middleman between your funds and the crypto exchange. That’s not to say Coinbase transactions aren’t safe, but PayPal’s “familiar and trusted experience” might be better for users, especially customers who are just starting to discover the cryptocurrency world.
PayPal users can buy crypto on Coinbase with a few simple taps, as long as they have a Coinbase account. The email addresses registered with PayPal and Coinbase have to coincide if you don’t want to go through a two-factor authentication process during checkout. But PayPal payments work even if you have different email addresses set up for Coinbase and PayPal.
There’s also a daily limit for PayPal purchases on Coinbase, $25,000. The feature is only available to US customers for the time being, but it will be rolled out to other countries in the future. Cash withdrawals from Coinbase to PayPal are also available to users in the US, Canada, EU, and the UK.
