According to a 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), PayPal held nearly $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency on its balance sheet by the end of Q1 2023.
Customers Crypto in the Green
As of March 31, 2023, PayPal held $943 million worth of customers’ Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC) on its balance sheet, representing a $339 million increase from the previous quarter. None of its crypto belongs to anyone other than its customers.
The company’s current crypto breakdown consists of $499 million worth of BTC, $362 million in ETH, and the other $82 million in BCH and LTC.
PayPal lets customers buy, sell, receive, send, and hold said cryptocurrencies, and use the proceeds from their respective sales to purchase goods and services at checkout.
“We maintain the internal recordkeeping of our customers’ crypto assets, including the amount and type of crypto asset owned by each of our customers,” PayPal said in the filing.
PayPal will fully protect customers from unauthorized crypto purchases or sales, and from unauthorized crypto transfers up to $50,000 lifetime.
PayPal’s Crypto Support
In June, PayPal enabled customers to withdraw crypto assets to personal wallets.
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman has expressed bullish sentiments towards cryptocurrencies and believes CBDCs, stablecoins, and digital wallets will “redefine a lot of the financial world going forward.”
PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has also shown respect for Bitcoin’s power in the past, suggesting it could undermine the global strength of the US dollar. However, his VC firm cashed out of all of its crypto holdings in 2023 after HODLing for 8 years.
