(Reuters) – PayPal Holdings Inc is unlikely to buy cryptocurrencies as bitcoin, payment processor chief financial officer John Rainey told CNBC on Thursday.
“We are not going to invest corporate money, probably, in financial assets like this, but we want to capitalize on this growth opportunity that lies ahead of us,” said Rainey in an interview with CNBC.
PayPal said in October that it will allow U.S. customers to keep bitcoins and other virtual currencies in their online wallet and buy using cryptocurrencies at merchants in its network.
Earlier this week, Mastercard said it was planning to offer support for some cryptocurrencies on its network this year. Asset manager BlackRock Inc and payments company Square Inc also recently supported cryptocurrencies.
Rainey said PayPal wants to invest its money in services the company is currently providing, such as buy now and pay later.
“Buy now and pay later” services flourished on retail sites during the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people turned to online shopping.
PayPal’s comments come amid a bitcoin frenzy after Tesla Inc, Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company, revealed that it bought $ 1.5 billion in cryptocurrency and would soon accept it as a form of payment for cars, raising the digital currency price.
After Tesla’s announcement, several companies presented their opinions.
Uber Technologies Inc CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the hitchhiking company discussed and “quickly dismissed” the idea of investing in bitcoin. However, he added that Uber can accept the cryptocurrency as payment.
Twitter Inc. said it is still undecided about maintaining bitcoin, while General Motors Co said it will assess whether bitcoin can be accepted as payment for its vehicles.
Reporting by Aishwarya Nair and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Shounak Dasgupta edition