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Relies on digital wallets:
Dan Schulman
, head of the payment service provider PayPal
Photo: Lucas Jackson / REUTERS
Numerous company bosses are now gambling with Bitcoin, but PayPal is taking a different route.
The payment service provider does not want to follow the example of Tesla boss Elon Musk and does not want to invest in crypto currencies like Bitcoin itself.
"We will probably not invest corporate money in such financial investments, but we want to take advantage of this growth opportunity that lies ahead of us," said CFO
John Rainey
on CNBC on Thursday (local time).
In October, the payment provider announced that it would enter the cryptocurrency business.
Customers in the USA should be able to buy, sell and store Bitcoin and other cyber currencies via the PayPal platform.
However, PayPal prefers to distribute its own capital to shareholders or use it for acquisitions, repeated CEO
Dan Schulman
(63) gave his point of view in the double interview.
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Nonetheless, Schulman firmly believes that the transition to digital forms of currency is inevitable.
For him, digital wallets represent a "natural complement to digital currencies". According to its own statements, PayPal now serves 360 million digital wallets.
Customers could already shop with digital coins on the PayPal retail network.
Paypal's Venmo mobile wallet is expected to begin offering the same services in the first half of this year, mindful of buying and selling cryptocurrencies.
The functions are to be expanded to international markets - initially in Great Britain, it is said.
Nevertheless, those who actually used Bitcoin to pay in the past are likely to regret it in the meantime in view of the massive price increases of the currency: For the vast majority, Bitcoin is instead an object of speculation.
"We want to use our balance sheet as a strategic weapon"
PayPal boss
Dan Schulman
Schulman also announced in the interview that PayPal would increase its cash flow from the last five billion dollars in 2020 to ten billion dollars annually in free cash flow.
In the financial technology industry, PayPal will take on the role of a consolidator.
"We want to use this cash. We want to use our balance sheet as a strategic weapon," said Schulman.
The credit card provider Mastercard also wants to support cryptocurrencies by opening its global network this year.
The move would open up a lot more opportunities for buyers and merchants as they could pay in a new form, the payment processor said this week.
Photo: Jens Kalaene / dpa
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These CEOs gamble with Bitcoin
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At the beginning of the week, Tesla boss Elon Musk gave the cyber currency Bitcoin another boost.
Tesla announced that it had already invested around $ 1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency in January.
In addition, Tesla wants to soon accept the digital currency as a means of payment.
On Friday, Bitcoin was quoted at just under $ 49,000 on the Luxembourg trading platform Bitstamp.
Musk's investments in Bitcoin are very controversial.
Because the Tesla boss plays a double role in the hype, both as a Bitcoin investor and as a "market mover", as his regular tweets arouse great interest among his 46 million followers.
At the same time, other companies are also investing in Bitcoin.
According to Bloomberg, the US software company Microstrategy had invested around 1.1 billion dollars in the crypto currency - its boss, in turn, had warmly recommended an investment in Bitcoin to Musk.
In October, Square Inc., under the leadership of longtime crypto fan
Jack Dorsey,
44, announced that it had converted approximately $ 50 million of its total assets into tokens by the second quarter of 2020.
travel with Reuters
