Paypal Unveils Plans to Expand Cryptocurrency Services With 'Super App' and Open Banking Integration

Payments giant Paypal has outlined its plans to expand cryptocurrency services, including via a new wallet “super app,” open banking integration, U.K. expansion, and third-party wallet transfers. “We continue to be really pleased with the momentum we’re seeing on crypto and we’re obviously adding incremental functionality into that,” said Paypal’s CEO.

Paypal Reveals Crypto Plans, Details of ‘Super App’

Paypal CEO Dan Schulman talked about his company’s crypto plans and the progress of the upcoming “super app” during the payments giant’s second-quarter earnings conference call Wednesday.

“I’m pleased to report that the initial version of our new consumer wallet super app is code complete and we are now beginning to slowly ramp,” Schulman began, elaborating:

New features will include high yield savings, early access to direct deposit funds, new and improved bill pay functionality, messaging capabilities outside of P2P to enable family and friend communications, as well as additional crypto capabilities and customized deals and offers.

“Each wallet will be uniquely driven by our advanced AI and machine learning capabilities in order to enhance each customer’s experiences and opportunities,” he added.

“In the next several months, we plan to be fully ramped in the U.S. with a host of products and services across payments, basic consumer financial services and commerce and shopping tools launching every quarter,” the CEO continued.

During the Q&A part of the call, Ramsey El-Assal, an analyst with Barclays Investment Bank, asked about the CEO’s updated view on crypto and blockchain and how Paypal planned to engage with the ecosystem from a consumer product perspective.

Schulman replied: “We continue to be really pleased with the momentum we’re seeing on crypto and we’re obviously adding incremental functionality into that.” The executive also mentioned that Paypal recently increased the weekly crypto purchase limit to $100,000 and removed the annual limit altogether.

Furthermore, the CEO noted:

We’re right in the middle of some open banking integration, which will increase the ability to fully integrate into ACH and do faster payments. We’re going to launch hopefully, maybe even next month in the UK, open up trading there. We’re working right now on transfers to third party wallets and we really want to make sure that we create a very seamless process for taxes and tax reporting.

“And so, we’re really looking at how do we integrate that into both the trading and the buy with crypto on our platform,” the CEO detailed, adding, “We’re also seeing strong adoption and trading of crypto on Venmo.”