PayPal launches crypto trading service in the UK

PayPal will now allow its users in the U.K. to buy, sell, and hold crypto starting next week.

PayPal supports four coins: BTC, ETH, LTC and BCH.

PayPal has launched its crypto service in the U.K.  Starting next week, the company will allow its users in the country to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies.

The U.K. is the first international market PayPal has expanded into for its crypto service after the U.S. launch last October. Like its U.S. users, PayPal’s U.K. customers will also be able to trade and hold four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), and bitcoin cash (BCH).

The company’s crypto partner for the U.K. service remains Paxos, which acts as a market maker and custody provider. PayPal currently does not allow withdrawals to external wallets but is exploring the functionality, a spokesperson of the company told The Block, but declined to provide a timeline for the launch.

PayPal users can start investing in crypto with as little as £1 or $1, but there are caps on the maximum investment amount. In the U.K., users won’t be able to purchase crypto worth more than £15,000 per week, the spokesperson said. The maximum amount for purchases over a 12-month period is £35,000, they said. In the U.S., however, the weekly crypto purchase limit is higher at $100,000.

PayPal also allows its users in the U.S. to shop using crypto, although not directly. That means users have to first sell their crypto holdings and pay PayPal merchants in fiat. PayPal’s Venmo payments app also allows users to buy, sell and hold crypto in the U.S.  Venmo isn’t available in the U.K.

It remains unclear what PayPal’s crypto trading volumes are or how much money the company makes from its crypto service. Unlike Square and Robinhood, PayPal does not provide financial numbers related to its crypto business.

Besides providing the crypto trading service, PayPal is also active in the crypto investment space. The company’s venture capital unit has backed startups like TaxBit, TRM Labs, and Talos, among others. Earlier this year, PayPal also acquired crypto security firm Curv.