'This is just the beginning': PayPal CEO highlights planned push to support more digital currencies

PayPal's CEO remarked about the payments company's newly-unveiled crypto offering during its Q3 earnings call on Monday and highlighted how the firm intends to add more digital currencies in the future.

What forms those digital currencies will take remains to be seen, but his comment about central bank digital currencies hints that PayPal might support digital forms of money created by the world's monetary authorities. As The Block previously outlined in its global survey of CBDC efforts, many central banks around the world are pursuing such initiatives. 

Highlighting PayPal's work with regulators on the digital currency front, PayPal CEO Daniel Schulman noted: "This is just the beginning of the opportunities we see as we work hand-in-hand with regulators to accept new forms of digital currencies."

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On the question of CBDCs themselves, Schulman remarked that "from my perspective and all my conversations are a matter of when and how they're done, not if," adding:

"And I think that our platform with its digital wallets and the scale that we have right now can help shape the utility of those currencies. That can range from interoperability between wallets, between the currencies themselves, and, importantly, into our network of merchants for commerce."

PayPal made waves last month when it went public with its long-rumored plan to support the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies. 

During the call, Schulman remarked that "our base is very eager for us to offer these capabilities" and said that crypto functionality has been extended to "10% of our base." He added that waiting list demand was "two or three times what our expectations were."