Paypal Reveals Over 50% Increase In Cryptocurrency Holdings In Q1 2023

Financial tech giant PayPal revealed it has seen an increase in its cryptocurrency holdings by more than 50% in the first quarter of this year, which is equivalent to nearly $1 billion.

In PayPal's 10-Q filing, which is a quarterly report of the company's performance, it disclosed that it currently holds $943 million worth of customer assets in Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC) on its balance sheet.

Based on the financial tech company's report at the end of last year, the latest data underlined that it has a $339 million spike in crypto assets, or 56% increase over last quarter's $604 million.

The filing also noted PayPal treats its crypto assets a "safeguarding liability" because of the "unique risk associated" with it.

Moreover, it highlighted that some crypto assets held by the company remained unchanged since the past quarter.

"We allow our customers in certain markets to buy, hold, sell, receive, and send certain cryptocurrencies as well as use the proceeds from sales of cryptocurrencies to pay for purchases at checkout," PayPal said. "These cryptocurrencies consist of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin (collectively, 'our customers' crypto assets')."

"We maintain the internal recordkeeping of our customers' crypto assets, including the amount and type of crypto asset owned by each of our customers," PayPal further said in the filing. "As of March 31, 2023, the Company has not incurred any safeguarding loss events, and therefore, the crypto asset safeguarding liability and corresponding safeguarding asset were recorded at the same value."

In its terms and conditions, the financial tech giant assured its customers it will protect them from "the full amount of unauthorized purchase or sale activity," if they cooperate with the company.

PayPal also promised to reimburse customers for "unauthorized transfers" for a lifetime cap of $50,000.

PayPal, over the past years, has rolled out multiple crypto features to its customers.

Last July, it allowed customers to transfer to third-party wallets and exchanges. Recently, it also introduced crypto transfers via Venmo, a mobile payment service app.

Earlier this year, PayPal reportedly paused a crypto project it was working on with stablecoin issuer Paxos over regulatory scrutiny.

The supposed project has something to do with stablecoin, but Paypal allegedly delayed its launch to better understand the changing stablecoin regulation in the country.

Amanda Miller, a spokesperson for PayPal, previously said in a statement the company was "exploring a stablecoin" and confirmed "if and when we seek to move forward, we will, of course, work closely with relevant regulators."