(Reuters) – PayPal Holdings Inc. is unlikely to buy cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, the financial director of payment processor John Rainey told CNBC on Thursday.
“We probably won’t invest corporate cash in some kind of financial asset like this, but we want to take advantage of this growth opportunity we face,” Rainey said in a CNBC interview.
PayPal said in October that it will allow U.S. customers to keep bitcoins and other virtual currencies in their online wallet and buy with cryptocurrencies from their network merchants.
Earlier this week, Mastercard said it planned to offer support for some cryptocurrencies on its network this year. Asset manager BlackRock Inc and payment company Square Inc have also recently backed cryptocurrencies.
Rainey said PayPal wanted to invest its money in services the company currently offers, such as buy now, to pay later.
Buy now and pay later services have been growing through retail websites during the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people turned to online shopping.
PayPal’s comments come amid a bitcoin frenzy after Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company, Tesla Inc, revealed that it had bought $ 1.5 billion from the cryptocurrency and would soon accept it as a form of payment. for cars, which made the price of digital currency higher.
After Tesla’s announcement, several companies came out with their opinions.
Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the travel company discussed and “quickly dismissed” the idea of investing in bitcoin. However, he added that Uber could accept the cryptocurrency as payment.
Twitter Inc. said it was still undecided on keeping Bitcoin, while General Motors Co. said it will assess whether Bitcoin can be accepted as payment for its vehicles.
Reports of Aishwarya Nair and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta