PayPal Considers Launching Its Own Cryptocurrency, ‘PayPal Coin’
Coindesk has confirmed that PayPal (PYPL) is ready to launch its stablecoin as it tries to flex its muscles in the cryptocurrency market. PayPal subsidiary Curv has been laying the groundwork for the stablecoin launch since September.
Bloomberg first reported that PayPal is exploring the possibility of launching its own stablecoin. The stablecoin details were accidentally discovered on the company’s iPhone by developer Steve Moser and shared with Bloomberg. The hidden code and images revealed details of a “PayPal currency”. Furthermore, the codes showed that the US dollar would support the stablecoin, Bloomberg noted in its report.
PayPal has been very active in the cryptocurrency field and has also increased the limits of cryptocurrencies that its customers can buy and invests in educating its users about cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, it also allowed its customer base to safely withdraw their cryptocurrencies to third-party wallets.
US fintech giant #PayPal has confirmed its intention to launch its own #stablecoin called PayPal Coin.
Developer Steve Moser first discovered the development of an internal stablecoin in the source code of the Paypal iPhone app. @PayPal #cryptocurrency pic.twitter.com/RrLfnKnEuiPayPal trivializes hidden code on iPhone
However, the PayPal spokesperson tried to trivialize the issue and said it was limited by a recent internal hackathon. A hackathon is an event that envisions teams of engineers quickly coming together to explore and create new products that may never be released.
PayPal is one of the largest e-commerce payment platforms in the world. It emerged in 1998 and was founded by Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek and Max Levchin. Originally known as “Confinity Inc.” It later merged with dogecoin advocate Elon Musk’s online banking company “X.com” in 2000 and changed its name to “PayPal” a year later.
In 2002, it was acquired by online marketplace giant eBay for $1.5 billion and has become the default payment method for its 185 million users. In 2015, it split from its parent company and became a publicly traded independent company using the same PYPL symbol it had before the eBay acquisition.
Today, PayPal is the 54th largest company in the world and has over 377 million users worldwide. It has a market capitalization of $282.58 billion. During the fourth quarter of 2020, the platform processed 3.47 billion transactions for a combined value of $277 billion.