PayPal Rolling Out Crypto Trading in the UK This Week for BTC, ETH, LTC, and BCH

After the US, PayPal is now allowing its users in the UK to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency through its platform for as little as £1.

To begin with, only four cryptocurrencies will be offered viz. Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).

The new service will begin rolling out this week, the first international expansion of PayPal’s crypto services outside the US, and would be available to all eligible customers within the next few weeks.

In the US, users can also pay the merchants on the network through crypto, a feature not yet confirmed for release in the UK.

“It has been doing really well in the U.S.,” Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s general manager for blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies, told CNBC. “We expect it’s going to do well in the U.K.”

The payment giant will be adding a new crypto tab to its platform to show real-time prices and offer educational content.

The California-based company has more than 400 million active accounts globally and is one of the largest mainstream financial companies to offer its customers access to cryptos.

This new service is expected to help introduce more people in the UK to explore cryptocurrencies, said da Ponte in a statement.

“The pandemic has accelerated digital change and innovation across all aspects of our lives, including the digitisation of money and greater consumer adoption of digital financial services.”

PayPal further said it is committed to working closely with regulators in the UK and around the world to “meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”

According to the VP, it makes sense that regulators are paying more attention to the space as the crypto industry gets increased consumer interest and volume but added PayPal has built “strong regulatory relations.”

It, however, is just the beginning, as PayPal “definitely” has “ambitions to continue to expand the product range in the U.S., the U.K., and other markets,” da Ponte said. “We are very deliberate about starting with initial functionality, and then we’ll see where the market is going to take us.”