PayPal Rolls Out ‘Pay with Crypto’ Checkout Tool, Adds 100+ Tokens

Following the recent adoption of the GENIUS Act, PayPal has swiftly added the new ‘Pay with Crypto’ checkout tool to facilitate digital payments on its platform. The tool supports over 100 tokens right out of the gate, with the usual suspects like BTC, ETH, USDT, SOL, XRP, or BNB among the many options.

The new PayPal crypto tool supports integration with leading wallets, including Coinbase, MetaMask, OKX, Kraken, or Phantom. Users can exchange tokens directly from their PayPal account and make transactions for a small fee without worrying about volatility. It’s still early days, and the tool is currently available only in the US (excluding New York), with a global launch expected in the coming months.

Pay with Crypto, in a Nutshell

The stated aim of PayPal’s new Pay with Crypto tool is to simplify cross-border commerce by connecting the global base of 650 million estimated crypto users and covering 90% of the nearly $4 trillion Crypto Market Cap. The tool also enables instant conversion between crypto, stablecoin, and fiat.

Furthermore, PayPal promises payment without delay or price volatility at the receiver’s end. Namely, transitions paid via crypto will first be exchanged into PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD before being converted back. That way, volatility is sidestepped, and the price is kept at the original value.

Likewise, PayPal is keeping the transaction fees below the market value, at 0,99% per transaction. For comparison, Visa’s transaction rate starts at 1.74%, while Mastercard’s ranges from 1.15% to 3.15%. “Imagine a shopper in Guatemala buying a special gift from a merchant in Oklahoma City,” said Alex Chriss, President and CEO of the company. “Using PayPal’s open platform, the business can accept crypto for payments, increase their profit margins, pay lower transaction fees, get near instant access to proceeds, and grow funds stored as PYUSD at 4% when held on PayPal.”

Beyond the shoppers in Guatemala and merchants in Oklahoma, however, the new tool is also set to simplify transactions in crypto-first online casinos. Not many markets currently support PayPal, but the company’s inclusion of digital currency checkouts is a positive signal for others to follow suit in the future. It’s only a matter of time before other E-wallets start doing the same.

New Era for Crypto

With the new tool, PayPal rides the wave of mass stablecoin adoption, spurred on by the recent passage of the GENIUS Act. In a landmark move to reshape the crypto landscape and improve regulatory clarity, the Act was signed into law on July 18th. It is the first major piece of crypto legislation in the US and a cornerstone for the stablecoin integration in payments and institutional settlements.

But the impact of the Act goes beyond simple regulation. It provides ground rules for long-term institutional clarity—something that crypto lacked from day 1. It will also spur further innovation. According to Sygnum’s chief investment officer, Fabian Dori, the Act “gives confidence to organizations and issuers to develop original, innovative ‘killer apps’ that don’t just serve their customers’ current needs, but create demand for entirely new services, including payments.”

And that’s precisely what’s going on here. The GENIUS Act has sent a surefire signal to companies like PayPal to start integrating their own tools for cross-border payments.

PayPal may be the largest, but it’s far from being the first to join the board. Stripe launched its stablecoin payment solution almost a year ago, with 70+ countries active right from the start. Since then, it has partnered with Coinbase to enable fiat-to-crypto services for both Stripe and Coinbase, which, in effect, also added the x402 protocol to facilitate crypto payments over HTTP.