Ebay: ‘Virtual currency is happening’

Ebay might be eyeing the cryptocurrency market. According the photographs of marketing material, the online marketplace is actively pursuing crypto payments. However, it’s not likely that the Paypal-owned marketplace mogul will actively accept crypto payments. It’s more likely the company will partner with a crypto payment platform.

In September last year former Ebay and Paypal executive Sanja Kon became the head of global partnerships for Utrust. This company is payment processor that supports bitcoin, litecoin, XRP and various other coins. The company also had its own native token. It’s very likely Kon used her existing contacts to create a partnership between Ebay and Utrust. However, this partnership has not been confirmed yet.

Ebay has over 180 million monthly users and still is one of the biggest online shopping websites. If Ebay would allow cryptocurrency payments, it would follow Japanese retail giant Rakuten. Overstock.com is one of the online webshops that has been accepting bitcoin payments for years now.

Paypal however, is not keen on incorporating cryptocurrencies into their services. The payment company is investigating the use of blockchain technology though, to improve its services.

In the past Paypal did allow merchants to accept payments in bitcoin. But when the volatility of the coin started surging, the company removed the option. They feel that merchants need to convert bitcoin immediately to euro or dollars, and therefore bitcoin isn’t suitable as a commercial tool for payments.

Originally published at NEDEROB.