paypal-launches-the-ability-to-buy,-hold-and-sell-cryptocurrency-in-the-uk

PayPal Launches the Ability to Buy, Hold and Sell Cryptocurrency in the UK

 

PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) today announced the launch of a new service enabling its customers in the UK1 to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency with PayPal. This new service starts rolling out this week.

  • Enables access to cryptocurrency for consumers in a secure and responsible way
  • Encourages customers to research and learn about the opportunities and risks in cryptocurrency before transacting
  • Marks first international expansion of PayPal’s cryptocurrency service beyond the U.S.

Customers can choose from four types of cryptocurrencies—Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. By accessing their PayPal account via the website or the mobile app, they can view real-time crypto prices, access educational content to help answer commonly asked questions, and learn more about cryptocurrencies, including the opportunities and risks.

This announcement marks the first international expansion of the company’s cryptocurrency offering outside of the United States. With a trusted brand like PayPal now making an entry, access, knowledge, and the exploration of cryptocurrency has the potential to become mainstream in the UK.

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,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Vice President and General Manager, Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currencies at PayPal. “Our global reach, digital payments expertise, and knowledge of consumer and businesses, combined with rigorous security and compliance controls provides us the unique opportunity, and the responsibility, to help people in the UK to explore cryptocurrencyWe are committed to continue working closely with regulators in the UK, and around the world, to offer our support—and meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”

Buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency with PayPal
The introduction of this service offers customers a new way to explore cryptocurrency in the PayPal environment they know and trust. Customers can start by buying as little as £1 of cryptocurrency through PayPal. To purchase cryptocurrency, eligible customers can log into their PayPal account via the website or their mobile app, navigate to the new crypto tab to view the four cryptocurrencies available and view current pricing and trends.

Customers can choose from pre-determined purchase amounts or enter in their own purchase amount, before following the prompts to buy the cryptocurrency of their choice. Customers will be able to fund their PayPal account for the purchase using their bank account or debit card. If customers choose to sell cryptocurrency with this new service, funds are normally available quickly to spend in their PayPal account. There are no fees to hold cryptocurrency in a PayPal account. There are transaction fees and currency conversion fees for buying and selling applicable cryptocurrencies.

Create greater understanding and enable access
As part of this offering, PayPal provides account holders with educational content to help them understand the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the volatility, risks, and opportunities related to purchasing cryptocurrency. The company encourages its customers to do their research on the risks and opportunities for various cryptocurrencies before taking the step to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency with PayPal.

Advancing the next generation of financial services infrastructure
PayPal is one of the largest companies globally to enter the market for digital currencies with its announcement last October that it would allow its millions of U.S. customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies. This March, the company announced ‘Checkout with Crypto’— enabling customers in the U.S. to use their cryptocurrency alongside other payment methods in their PayPal wallet to make purchases at businesses around the world. In April, the company introduced crypto services on its mobile payment service Venmo in the U.S.

In addition to providing these cryptocurrency services, PayPal has been exploring the potential of digital currencies through partnerships with licensed and regulated cryptocurrency platforms and with central banks around the world. For the past five years, PayPal has increased its focus on, and invested resources in its internal blockchain research team to explore the next generation of digital financial services infrastructure and enhancements to digital commerce.

The company has enabled its cryptocurrency offering through a partnership with Paxos Trust Company. PayPal’s venture capital arm has also made investments in blockchain and cryptocurrency-related start-ups including: TRM Labs, leading cryptocurrency risk management software; TaxBit, a provider of crypto tax software to customers and exchanges; and Talos, institutional-grade infrastructure technology for digital asset trading.

In the UK, PayPal’s new crypto offering which covers buying, holding and selling cryptocurrency will start to roll out this week and will be available within the next few weeks for all eligible customers directly in their PayPal account via the website and their mobile app. To learn more, visit our Newsroom or www.paypal.com/uk/crypto.

coinpayments-set-to-remain-leading-crypto-payment-processor-finds-d-core-survey

CoinPayments Set to Remain Leading Crypto Payment Processor Finds D-Core Survey

 

Emerging technology research company D-Core released its latest analysis reviewing the future of the cryptocurrency landscape, calling for CoinPayments to remain the leading crypto payments processor in 2026.

D-Core’s report surveyed 161 experts, asking them: “Which crypto payment processor will definitely be operating in five years time?” Of those surveyed, 37% picked CoinPayments, giving it the top spot. The other crypto payment processors included in the report were Bitpay (29%), BTCpay (19%), SpicePay (13%), CoinGate (1%), among others.

“It is great to be recognized as a top crypto payment processor among experts in the industry,” noted Jason Butcher, CEO of CoinPayments. “Since 2013, our aim has always been to fuel crypto adoption and the most effective way to give digital assets their rightful place as mediums of exchange is by enabling businesses and consumers to use them for everyday purchases.”

The report’s timely release comes as notable companies like Paypal and Tesla announce that they will be facilitating crypto payments for customers. Crypto adoption is steadily on the rise as more businesses come to understand the benefits that come with accepting crypto payments.

“D-Core’s focus is on providing unique information and insights into emerging technology companies and projects in blockchain, decentralized finance, and payments,” noted D-Core founder Kevin Mudd. “As more people look for information on crypto and payments, we aim to help to uncover tomorrow’s disruptors in the space to help institutional investors, family offices, hedge funds, and main street investors make wiser investment decisions.”

we-fight-fraud:-covid-makes-criminals-go-cashless

We Fight Fraud: Covid Makes Criminals Go Cashless

 

We Fight Fraud (WFF) has used its unique access to the criminal underworld to discover how Covid-19 is transforming business within the illicit economy. The findings, announced today, include a move towards transacting the proceeds of crime via bank transfers and trading illegal goods on social media. This will alarm legitimate businesses, especially banks and FinTech organisations, who are being used to launder money, in breach of the regulations governing them. Legitimate businesses are also being used to facilitate fraud. The implications of the findings will be published in a whitepaper, to be discussed at the WFF Live conference on 28th April – a free to attend, virtual event for business professionals, supported by fraud prevention specialists, LexisNexis® Risk Solutions.

Dr Nicola Harding, WFF Advisor and academic specialising in fraud, is lead author of the whitepaper. She explained: “The operational changes we found mirror those experienced by legitimate businesses during the pandemic, who reported a dramatic decrease in the use of cash. We found that the preferred option for criminals is now bank transfers, while some are also using PayPal or premium rate telephone numbers to send funds.”

The whitepaper’s findings also demonstrate how significant social media has become in connecting the legitimate economy with the underworld. Simon, who works in IT, shared with the researchers the process of buying cannabis from a page on Instagram. He paid by bank transfer and the drugs were delivered to his house via Royal Mail – all within 36 hours.

The WFF team will all be speaking at the event and include: Tony Sales – dubbed ‘Britain’s Greatest Fraudster’ by the Sun newspaper – who now helps household-name brands avoid fraud; Andy McDonald, former head of counter terrorist, organised crime and fraud teams at New Scotland Yard; and Solomon Gilbert, former child hacker, who has since worked with the National Crime Agency.

Tony Sales explained: “Criminal behaviour has adapted, innovated and evolved during the current crisis. We Fight Fraud uniquely talks to criminals to understand their activities. There was an assumption that the decline of cash would make life more difficult for criminals. Our findings show that the reverse is true.”

Ellie Burns, a Fraud and Identity specialist with lead sponsors, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, explains the significance of the conference and the report: “The pandemic has had a profound impact on the way all businesses operate. The WFF findings show that it is no different with the criminal underworld. In order to keep pace with the constantly shifting cybercrime landscape, we must come together to share trends, insights and knowledge. We Fight Fraud Live is a unique opportunity to do exactly that and we are delighted to be involved.”

To book a seat at the free conference go to www.wefightfraud.org/live. The virtual conference will be sending delegate packs to 500 people registering to attend from the industry and the media. These will include a copy of the whitepaper, offers and goods.

flutterwave-closes-usd-$170m-funding

Flutterwave Closes USD $170m Funding

 

Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, today announces it has secured USD $170 million from a leading group of international investors as part of a successful Series C round. The round was led by growth-equity firms Avenir Growth Capital (“Avenir”) and Tiger Global Management LLC (“Tiger Global”) with participation from new and existing investors.

Founded by entrepreneur Olugbenga Agboola in 2016, the company’s valuation is considered to be valued at more than USD $1 billion. The fundraise brings the total investment in Flutterwave to USD $225 million and is one of only a very small number of African fintech companies to have raised significant funds in a period of widespread disruption and economic uncertainty.

The new funds will allow Flutterwave to execute an ambitious growth strategy to become a leading global payments company, empowering SMEs and multinational brands by connecting the highly fragmented African digital payments landscape. Flutterwave will invest the new capital to accelerate customer acquisition in existing and international markets, as well as develop complementary and innovative products such as the newly launched Flutterwave Mobile, an app to help accelerate ecommerce growth as a result of the success of the Flutterwave Stores.

This fundraise comes at a time when Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to digital payments in Africa, which has contributed to Flutterwave’s exceptional revenue growth of 226% CAGR from 2018-2020.

Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said: “When Flutterwave was founded in 2016, the payments landscape in Africa was highly fragmented so the goal was to build a pan-African platform that simplified payments for everyone. However our successes would not be possible without (1) Our amazing team of 300+ employees that work tirelessly to achieve our goals (2) The trust and support we have received from our investors and customers and (3) Regulatory bodies like the Central Bank of Nigeria which – under the leadership of the current Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele – has remained at the forefront of the significant efforts that are currently being made by African governments to create the enabling environment for technology, innovation and financial inclusion. This humbling support has created the backbone upon which companies like Flutterwave have been able to thrive.”

As we look to the future, our focus remains the same which is to stand by our 290,000 merchants across Africa every day as they strive to build their mom-and-pop stores into global businesses. We look forward to increasing our investments across the continent and deepening the impact our platform has on lives and livelihoods as we take more businesses in Africa to the World, and at the same time continue to bring more of the World to Africa.”

Jamie Reynolds, Partner at Avenir Growth Capital, commented: “Flutterwave is at the forefront of innovation in payments technology, and we are excited to support the team as they build the last available payments infrastructure frontier in the world – connecting merchants and consumers intra-Africa and globally.”

Scott Shleifer, Partner at Tiger Global Management LLC, added: “We are excited to partner with Flutterwave as they continue building a world-class payments platform. We were impressed by Flutterwave’s focus on customer success and believe the company is well-positioned for sustainable long-term growth.” 

This latest funding round was led by Avenir and Tiger Global with participation from DST Global, Early Capital Berrywood, Green Visor Capital, Greycroft Capital, Insight Ventures, PayPal, Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Management, WorldpayFIS, and 9yards Capital. Avenir and Tiger Global have funded some of the brightest tech start-ups in the world including Current, Latch, Savage x Fenty, JD.com and Facebook.

Flutterwave was founded with the mission to create endless possibilities for customers and businesses in Africa and the emerging markets. It enables its customers to build customisable payment applications through its APIs. Flutterwave’s Series C fundraise comes on the back of an impressive run of 4 years in which Flutterwave reached over 290,000 merchants and over 500,000 registered Barter users, launched a range of new products and partnerships and expanded its infrastructure into over 33 countries.