Crypto Adoption: MetaMask Wallet Teams Up with PayPal to Enable Customers to Buy ETH Directly

ConsenSys, the developer of the popular crypto wallet MetaMask, has announced a partnership with PayPal in a new leap for crypto adoption.

The Ethereum (ETH) software firm said on Wednesday that mobile MetaMask users in the US would be able to buy ETH from within the MetaMask app using the payment giant – meaning, they can buy and transfer this crypto from PayPal to MetaMask.

This option is quite limited for now, with the company stating that,

“This new functionality is available to select U.S. users starting today and rolling out to all eligible U.S. customers in the coming weeks.”

Our US users will now be able to fund their wallet with ETH via @PayPal! 🦊

Rolling out in the next weeks in the US, excl. Hawaii, through our mobile app (make sure to update to v5.13.0)🧵👇https://t.co/392JwFYF3m

— MetaMask 🦊🫰 (@MetaMask) December 14, 2022

Using PayPal within MetaMask is rather straightforward as it’s meant to enable users to select their PayPal accounts as a payment option within the wallet app. 

Users need to login into the Mobile MetaMask App, click the Buy button, select ‘PayPal’, and enter the USD amount worth of ETH to add to the wallet, at which point they will be redirected to PayPal to log in. They can then choose to either complete the transaction if they have enough ETH to send, or buy more via PayPal.

The press release said that this “will be the first Web3 wallet to leverage PayPal to drive more successful on-ramp transactions.”

Additionally, Lorenzo Santos, Product Manager for MetaMask, was quoted as saying that the integration with PayPal would allow the select users to “not just buy crypto seamlessly through MetaMask, but also to easily explore the Web3 ecosystem.”

This is a major move, given that MetaMask is one of the most popular self-custodial wallets, and it enables its users to explore and interact with, not only cryptocurrencies, but also decentralized finance (DeFi) applications (dapps), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), play-and-earn games, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the fast-growing metaverse. 

Not the first for PayPal

This is the latest in the string of PayPal integrations and expansions just this year. 

In June,  PayPal announced that it enabled the option for its customers in the US to transfer cryptoassets from their accounts to external wallets and exchanges. “This feature has been consistently ranked by users as one of the most requested enhancements since we began offering the purchase of crypto on our platform,” Jose Fernandez da Ponte, SVP and general manager of blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies at PayPal, said at the time. 

In October, crypto exchange Bitstamp integrated PayPal “for millions of people to buy, sell and trade crypto through a secure, regulated platform.” And just this month, PayPal said it would expand its crypto service to Luxembourg, and that eligible customers would be able to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum, Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in their PayPal accounts via the website or the mobile app. 

PayPal first offered users the ability to purchase, sell, and hold crypto in late 2020. Then, in March 2021, the company launched its Checkout with Crypto, a feature that allowed customers to pay with cryptoassets during checkout at millions of online businesses.

Furthermore, PayPal is not the only traditional payments company integrating crypto into their services, thus allowing their users to explore and interact with this industry. For example, in November, global payments company MoneyGram announced that US users could use its platform to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin, ethereum, and Litecoin.

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Learn more: 
– PayPal US Users Can Now Spend More on Bitcoin in Week Than They Could in Year
– PayPal UK Steps into Bitcoin & Crypto Waters Too

– Merchant Crypto Payments: Clever Marketing or Signs of Real Adoption?
– MoneyGram to Support Transfers via Stablecoins, CEO Says Crypto is ‘Obviously Here to Stay’