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Dan Schulman, the CEO of payment giant PayPal, has come out to tout crypto following the firm’s exemplary performance in Q1, this year. A report unveiled this news on May 6, citing an earnings call, in which Schulman noted that PayPal’s crypto dealings helped push its earnings higher than expected. Reportedly, the company’s net profit in Q1 rose to £0.78 billion from a mere £60.37 million in Q1, 2021.
According to the report, PayPal’s earnings per share was £0.88, surpassing Refinitiv’s projection of £0.73. The company’s revenue also breached past Refinitiv’s expectation of £4.24 billion to hit £4.34 billion. Additionally, PayPal’s total payment volume reached £205.27 billion, beating FactSet’s prediction of £190.44 billion.
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On top of this, PayPal added 14.5 million new active users over the past year to bring its total user base to 392 million. The company’s revenue also surged 31% year over year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused an uptick in online shopping.
However, Schulman believes that most of the growth came after introducing crypto on its platform. He disclosed that half of the crypto users that use PayPal open their app daily. To this end, he deduced that crypto encourages engagement with the application.
Climbing ranks quickly within the US crypto space
Despite making its debut in the crypto space just six months ago, PayPal is quickly becoming a big crypto player in the US. The firm is making use of its retailer network, which boasts 26 million merchants to compete with leading crypto firms in the US, such as Coinbase. Apart from this, PayPal is swift in introducing new features that will make trading crypto seamless.
Reportedly, the company seeks to roll out a new generation digital wallet in Q3, 2021. Per Schulman, this wallet would act as an-in-one customized application, which will offer crypto adopters personalized shopping, financial services, and payments experiences.
This news comes after a report citing people familiar with PayPal’s internal operations disclosed that the company is mulling to roll out a stablecoin. According to the sources, PayPal has been holding talks with some of the leading stablecoin developers. Reportedly, Ava Labs is one of these developers. Commenting on this news, a PayPal spokesperson said the company is actively exploring the potential of digital currencies, digital financial services infrastructure, and how it can help improve digital commerce as a trusted partner in the industry.