PayPal Will ‘Certainly Support’ Crypto Once it Stabilizes

PayPal CFO John Rainey told CNBC that they don’t see much interest in cryptocurrencies due to volatility threatening the viability of their merchants’ businesses. However, he did not rule out that the payment giant will support crypto in the future.

Rainey said in his interview, “Right now, we don’t see a lot of interest from our merchants. But if it’s something that stabilizes in the future and is a better currency, then we’ll certainly support that.”

According to the CFO, “If you’re a merchant and you have, let’s say, a 10% margin on a product that you sell and you accept Bitcoin, for example, and the very next day it moves 15%, you’re now underwater on that transaction… You could have something that appeals to consumers, but if merchants don’t accept it, it’s of little value”.

Meanwhile, Square Cash, the mobile payment app, which began supporting bitcoin at year-end 201,7 is growing faster than PayPal’s Venmo mobile payment service, according to Nomura Instinet, a subsidiary of Japanese financial giant Nomura. Dan Dolev, an analyst at Nomura Instinet, claims that with roughly 28 million cumulative downloads, the number of Square Cash downloads is just 1 million below Venmo’s levels.

The application is developed by Square, a company lead by Jack Dorsey, CEO of a social network Twitter. Dorsey once again expressed its optimism toward cryptocurrency adoption on a global scale, saying at the Consensus 2018 conference yesterday that he hopes Bitcoin will become the web’s “native currency.”

According to CNBC, Dolev said in a note to clients, “With Square Cash App now open for Bitcoin trading in most states, comparing its growth versus the popular Coinbase app is noteworthy. Here, while Coinbase saw growth peak around the holiday time — as Bitcoin prices spiked — Coinbase’s growth has slowed from record levels, whereas Square Cash App experienced more balanced growth.”