Helen Partz
Global payment giant PayPal is doing its best to bring all possible blockchain and cryptocurrency integrations to its services, according to a senior executive at the firm.
PayPal is working hard to support all possible digital services, including digital currencies and central bank digital currencies (CBDC), vice president Richard Nash said in an exclusive statement to Cointelegraph at the World Economic Forum on May 23.
After rolling out its buy, hold and sell service for Bitcoin (BTC) across the United States in 2020, PayPal continues to expand its digital currency-related offering, Nash noted:
“Just walking slowly in the crypto shield with buys or holds in certain jurisdictions. [...] Looking to work with others to embrace everything we can, whether it’d be the coins that we have today in PayPal digital wallets, private digital currencies or CBDCs in the future.”
Nash also hinted that he is a cryptocurrency owner, which perfectly aligns with his position at PayPal. When asked whether he holds any crypto himself, the vice presiden answered "I have a lot of things that I’m working on at PayPal and I like to experience services myself so I think that’s natural."
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman disclosed that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency he held as of November 2019.
PayPal is one of the world’s largest payment companies to have moved into crypto and blockchain in recent years. Apart from introducing BTC buy and sell options in certain countries, PayPal also announced its own crypto check-out service in March 2021 to allow crypto payments for merchants. The firm is reportedly also considering launching its own stablecoin, named PayPal Coin.
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Derek Andersen
The United States Federal Reserve Board has included data on cryptocurrency in its new Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in the 2021 report. The Fed’s ninth annual report looked at survey results from 11,000 people questioned in October and November 2021.
The report indicated financial wellbeing is the highest it has been since reporting began, with 78% of U.S. adults “doing okay or living comfortably financially.” That is an increase of 3% over the last three years. As a diagnostic of financial fitness, the report cites the 68% of Americans who say they could cover a $400 emergency expense using cash or its equivalent alone.
The report looked at cryptocurrency usage for the first time. It found that 12% of U.S. adults held or used crypto in 2020, with 11% holding it as an investment, 2% using it for a purchase or payment and 1% sending it to friends or family. Investors holding crypto “were disproportionately high-income, almost always had a traditional banking relationship, and typically had other retirement savings.” Forty-six percent had annual incomes of $100,000 or more and 89% of those who were not retired had retirement savings. Twenty-nine percent had incomes under $50,000.
The profile of the typical user making transactions with crypto differs starkly from investors. The report claimed that almost 60% of these users had incomes below $50,000, with 20% having incomes under $25,000. Only 24% had incomes above $100,000. Thirteen percent did not have a bank account. That compares with the 6% of adult Americans who lack bank accounts. Twenty-seven percent of those who used crypto for transactions did not have credit cards, compared to 17% of the total population.
Those who used crypto for transactions faced other disadvantages as well. Almost a quarter did not have a high school diploma, according to the results of the report.
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Brian Quarmby
E-commerce giant eBay has officially launched its first nonfungible token (NFT) drop with a series of tokenized collectibles featuring National Hockey League legend Wayne Gretzky that went live on Monday.
The NFT collection depicts animated versions of Gretzky that were inspired by Sports Illustrated magazine covers. They come in four different tiers of rarity including green at 299 editions each, gold at 199, platinum at 99 and diamond at 15.
The collection is up for sale on eBay’s marketplace now. However, the limited-edition diamond, platinum and gold tiers worth $1,500, $100 and $25, respectively, have already sold out.
According to the announcement from eBay, the collection was developed in partnership with environmentally focused NFT platform OneOf, which supports multiple “energy-efficient blockchains” to provide sustainable NFT collections.
EBay initially enabled NFT listings around mid-2021 but hasn’t integrated blockchain tech to support the sales on its marketplace. In terms of this official drop, users are sent a redemption link via in-platform messaging or email to receive their NFT outside of the platform.
The NFTs were minted on Ethereum scaling platform Polygon and can be put up for secondary trade on OneOf.
Secondary trade for the NFTs on OneOf has been minimal so far, however, with only three users listing platinum tiered tokens at a floor price of $199, while one user has listed a gold tier NFT for $69.
Commenting on the drop, eBay’s vice president of collectibles, electronics and home Dawn Block stated that NFT tech is “revolutionizing the collectibles space” and emphasized that the firm is looking to bring NFTs to mainstream collectors across the globe:
“Through our partnership with OneOf, eBay is now making coveted NFTs more accessible to a new generation of collectors everywhere. This builds upon our commitment to deliver high passion, high-value items to the eBay community of buyers and sellers.”
OneOf CEO Lin Dai echoed similar sentiments, noting that the duo is looking to make NFTs accessible to people that aren’t well versed in crypto:
“You don’t have to be a crypto expert to buy, sell, and collect NFTs. OneOf and eBay are bringing transformative Web3 technology to the next 100M non-crypto-native mass consumers.”
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
