PayPal Expands Crypto Team In Ireland

What Happened: Online payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL is hiring a team of executives in Ireland to further its efforts in the crypto space.

According to a report from the Irish Independent, PayPal is now recruiting people to fill crypto-related positions for its offices in Dublin and Dundalk.

The team will assume roles in compliance and anti-money laundering functions in PayPal’s blockchain, crypto and digital assets unit.

Why It Matters: PayPal’s first efforts to include cryptocurrency in its set of business offerings came in October 2020, when the company said it would allow customers to trade Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum ETH/USD, Bitcoin Cash BCH/USD and Litecoin LTC/USD through its platform.

The company then began offering a “pay with crypto” option for customers to use crypto to make purchases at its 29 million online merchants.

PayPal’s endeavors in the crypto field have proved to be successful so far, with the company’s CEO Dan Schulman recently commenting on how the demand for crypto exceeded expectations.

Now, the company plans to move beyond just offering customers the option of digital currency payments, and focus on expanding into other areas of the industry such as DeFi.

“We are clearly thinking about what the next generation of the financial system looks like, how we can help shape that,” said Schulman in an earnings call.

“How can we use smart contracts more efficiently? How can we digitize assets and open those up to consumers that may not have had access to that before? There are some interesting DeFi applications as well. And so we are working really hard.”

PYPL Price Action: At last check Monday, Paypal shares are down 1.65% to $270.99