(Reuters) – PayPal Holdings Inc is unlikely to buy cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, payment processor John Rainey told CNBC on Thursday.
“We are probably not going to invest corporate cash in such financial assets, but we want to take advantage of this growth opportunity that lies ahead of us,” Rainey said in a CNBC interview.
PayPal said in October it would enable U.S. customers to keep bitcoin and other virtual currencies in its online wallet, and buy cryptocurrencies from merchants in its network using cryptocurrencies.
Earlier this week, Mastercard said it plans to offer a number of cryptocurrencies on its network this year. Asset manager BlackRock Inc and payment company Square Inc also recently supported cryptocurrencies.
Rainey said PayPal wants to invest its money in services the company currently provides, such as buying now, paying later.
Buy now, pay later services flourished on retail websites during the COVID-19 pandemic as more people turned to online shopping.
PayPal’s comments come amid a bit of bitcoin madness after Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla Inc revealed that it had bought $ 1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency and would soon accept it as a means of payment for cars, which would send the price of the digital currency higher.
Following Tesla’s announcement, several companies expressed their views.
Uber Technologies Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company was quick to discuss the idea of investing in bitcoin and rejected ‘fast’. However, he added that Uber could possibly accept the cryptocurrency as payment.
Twitter Inc. said it was still not deciding to keep bitcoin, while General Motors Co said it would evaluate whether bitcoin could be accepted as payment for its vehicles.
Reporting by Aishwarya Nair and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta