US PayPal clients could now use cryptocurrency to make purchases

PayPal Holdings Inc has started allowing US consumers to use their cryptocurrency holdings to pay its online merchants globally.

Owners of bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin in PayPal digital wallets will now be able to convert their holdings into fiat currencies at checkouts to make purchases.

The service will be available at all of its 29 million merchants in the coming months.

According to PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman, this is the first time that cryptocurrencies could be used in the same way as a credit card or a debit card inside your PayPal wallet.

PayPal will charge no transaction fee to checkout with crypto but only one type of coin can be used for each purchase.

The offering made PayPal among the largest mainstream financial companies to open its network to cryptocurrencies.

Increased interest from larger financial firms caused Bitcoin to nearly double in value since the start of this year.

A week earlier, Tesla Inc said it would start accepting bitcoin payments for its cars.

Still, the asset has yet to become a widespread form of payment, partly due to its continued volatility.