New York (CNN Business)PayPal is launching its own cryptocurrency service, allowing people to buy, hold and sell digital currency on its site and applications.
The online payments company declared adding crypto was a significant milestone on the path to mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Bitcoin investors agreed: Prices rose 5% on the news Wednesday.
The efficiency, speed and resilience of cryptocurrencies give people financial inclusion and access advantages, said PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman, who described the eventual shift from physical to digital currencies as "inevitable."
Cryptocurrency is digital money exchanged without fees between two parties online with no involvement from traditional banks and no regulatory oversight by national governments.
"Our global reach, digital payments expertise, two-sided network, and rigorous security and compliance controls provide us with the opportunity, and the responsibility, to help facilitate the understanding, redemption and interoperability of these new instruments of exchange," Schulman said in a statement. "