PayPal Discloses Nearly $1 Billion in Crypto Holdings Dominated by BTC, ETH: Details

PayPal’s crypto holding amounts close to a whopping $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,210 crore), the company has disclosed in its latest financial report. Based in the US, PayPal is an online payments processor that also allows people to facilitate transactions in cryptocurrencies. At present, PayPal’s crypto possession is dominated by Bitcoin and Ether — both of which are the top two cryptocurrencies. The company revealed this information in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

PayPal currently holds $499 million (roughly Rs. 4,095 crore) worth of customer assets in the form of Bitcoin. Another big chunk of user assets worth $362 million (roughly Rs. 2,971 crore) are in PayPal’s custody as Ether tokens.

Other cryptocurrencies that are supported by PayPal have managed to encapsulate around $82 million (roughly Rs. 673 crore) — bringing the cumulative total to $943 million (roughly Rs. 7,740 crore).

Founded in 1998, PayPal has been enabling customers to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency since October 2020.

In its earnings report, the company noted that it has recorded a spike of $339 million (roughly Rs. 2,782 crore) in terms of its users’ crypto asset holdings.

“We maintain the internal recordkeeping of our customers’ crypto assets, including the amount and type of crypto asset owned by each of our customers in that custodial account. As of March 31, 2023, we utilise one third-party custodian; as such, there is concentration risk in the event the custodian is not able to perform in accordance with our agreement,” PayPal’s filing with the SEC said.

At present, PayPal supports transactions around Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, as well as Litecoin as part of its crypto services. The platform is dependent on third parties for securing custodial services like holding the private crypto wallet keys of PayPal customers and deploying safety layers to protect the assets in custody.

After experimenting with crypto services in the US, PayPal ventured into the European Union (EU) market in December last year via Luxembourg.

In February, the payments processor had appointed a special council to act as its advisory about digital currencies, cryptocurrencies, as well as blockchain technology.

As part of its future plans, PayPal could be looking at integrating risk mitigation facilitations into its services portfolio in the backdrop of it recording a rise in crypto-related activities.

In February this year, PayPal co-led a $20 million (roughly Rs. 160 crore) seed funding round for Chaos Labs, which is an on-chain risk optimiser.