PayPal had been dithering on lending support for Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
The payment processor had stuck to its guns until recently when it announced support for Bitcoin. This ends the 7-year streak since the payment processor has been tipped to support cryptocurrencies.
With other big tech companies coming into cryptocurrencies, the move by PayPal is commendable.
Now is the perfect opportunity to buy Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies via PayPal. In this CoinJournal guide, you will learn about how to do that with ease.
What You Need to Know
There are a couple of things to have in mind before considering buying cryptocurrencies with PayPal.
These important points include:
Buy Crypto with Personal Accounts
There are two types of accounts offered by PayPal. These are the Personal and Business accounts.
Currently, the payment processor only allows the users to buy crypto with their Personal accounts. The feature might be activated for Business accounts later.
The Feature is Only Available in the U.S.
The support for crypto purchases via PayPal is only available in the United States and other U.S. territories. PayPal also restricted Hawaii from the list.
The payment processor is already working on plans to expand the cryptocurrency purchase feature to other parts of the world in 2021.
Buy Bitcoin and Other 3 Cryptos
Much isn’t to be expected from the PayPal support for crypto, especially as it pertains to the availability of cryptocurrencies.
Only Bitcoin and three other crypto coins are available for purchase. These three are Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC).
How to Buy Cryptocurrency with PayPal
Let us now get into the main part of the article – how to purchase crypto via PayPal. The steps below will walk you through the process:
1. Login and Locate the Crypto Tab
The first thing you need to do is to login into your PayPal account if you already have one. You can as well sign up for a new account using your email address, telephone number, and credit/debit card details.
Once you have access to the account, navigate to the “Crypto” tab. You will find this next to the “Send” and “Request” tabs on your homepage. The tab may also be displayed as “Buy Bitcoin and More.”
2. Choose Your Preferred Crypto
Step number 2 is to choose or select the type of cryptocurrency you want to buy. By default, it is set as Bitcoin. But you can always select from the other three options viz: Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
3. Confirm the Terms
Buying Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency is risky. To help you understand the risks, PayPal has developed Terms and Conditions that guide the purchase of cryptocurrency via the platform.
You are expected to confirm some of the information that is based on these terms. Click on the “Confirm” button to do this and continue.
4. How Much Bitcoin Do You Want to Buy?
This is the most important part of buying cryptocurrencies via PayPal. Here, you will be asked to select or enter the amount of crypto you want to buy.
PayPal has set the minimum purchase amount to $1. Also, the payment processor made a couple of recommendations. You can find options to buy crypto worth $1, $20, $50, or $100.
You can also enter the amount you want to buy by punching in the figure in the box.
5. Select a Payment Method
It is time to pay for the crypto. At this point, PayPal will display the available payment methods you have in your account, including credit/debit cards and the bank account you linked.
Don’t want to use any of those? It’s fine! You can also add new payment methods at this point to pay for the crypto you are buying.
6. Review and Buy
You will be presented with an interface that summarizes your transaction. You will see the amount of crypto you want to buy, the transaction fee, and the total amount you will pay via the payment method you selected.
If this is okay with you, click on the “Buy Now” button to validate the transaction.
7. Wait for Your Crypto
If the transaction went through successfully, you should be able to find your crypto on your PayPal account.
To do this, navigate to your PayPal account’s homepage. Navigate to the “Crypto” tab to see the number of cryptos you have and the current market value.
You can also find the “Buy” and “Sell” buttons to help you sell your cryptos all within the PayPal wallet.
PayPal and Crypto: What is the Future?
PayPal has done a great service to the crypto community to allow the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies.
Have in mind that the feature is only limited within the PayPal crypto wallet. Currently, there is no option to transfer or withdraw the cryptos in your PayPal digital wallet.
Transaction fees are also charged. You will get charged up to 1.5% for crypto transactions above $1,000.
Finally, the cryptocurrency market is ever-growing. The support from PayPal does not only make crypto buying and selling accessible in the U.S., where it had hitherto been restricted. It also opens up doors of opportunities for thousands of merchants to start accepting crypto as a payment method.