Bitcoin prices surge after Paypal jumps into the cryptocurrency business

C/P from multiple sources (Verge, CNN Buisness, Reuters, TechCrunch)
Wed October 21, 2020

PayPal has entered the cryptocurrency market, announcing that its customers will be able to buy and sell Bitcoin and other virtual currencies using their PayPal accounts.

The other cryptocurrencies to be added first will be Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash (a spin-off from Bitcoin).
Other payment firms, such as Square's Cash app and Revolut, have already offered cryptocurrencies for sale. But PayPal has been one of the largest merchant networks in the world.

But it is not PayPal's first venture into the area.
The firm was once a partner in Facebook's digital currency Libra, but became the first to pull out of the alliance, just a few months after it was announced.
The scheme was controversial, attracting attention from financial regulators in several countries.


PayPal says its new service will give customers the ability to hold and exchange Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin cryptocurrencies using the company's digital wallet, which lets people shop online, request and send money.

The company's US customers will receive crypto service access in the coming weeks, but they won't be able to pay for products and services using cryptocurrency until early 2021.
PayPal's Venmo customers and select international consumers won't have crypto services until some time in the first half of 2021.

Investors responded positively to the news Wednesday, as PayPal's (PYPL) stock price surged following opening bell before retreating close to where it opened for the day.
The company's stock has more than doubled since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States in mid-March.

The pandemic has fueled a boom in the online payments industry and companies like PayPal, Square (SQ) and Venmo -- which is owned by PayPal -- because many coronavirus-wary consumers are avoiding the use of physical cash.

This is the thing that will kill even the biggest of retailers who have anything but small local stores. Stores like Dollar General will probably reap enormous rewards but the Wal-Marts will go down and the Sam's will go up. If a man was young enough and had some capital he would do well to startup a company with delivery cars and trucks that were local in every county in the country and small warehouses that delivered to the HOMES of the drivers. Each driver would be a contracted employee. Each warehouse would handle an area that covered ten delivery trucks. No large expense and trucks dedicated to the same customers with much less overhead than UPS or FEDEX.

BC has been a really good money maker for years, but with the tax implications now, it is becoming a government support trolley. Buying and selling on lows and highs could make a person a lot of money before the IRS got involved, it remains to be seen what the actual result will be. I hope they just take a minimal amount so the ride can continue. There will be no more $.06 to $19,000 rides, but there will still be 100% in a year profits for those that are lucky enough to jump on the right train.