PayPal’s stock is up over 3.7 percent in the past week after the digital transactions giant hinted that it’s ready to leap into the cryptocurrency space with a bitcoin-related patent.
Published on 1 March, Paypal filed a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a product that hopes to increase cryptocurrency payment speed using secondary private keys to reduce transaction wait times between consumers and merchants.
In other words, a secondary wallet that stores keys for both buyer and seller at the same time.
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Paypal is already a giant in this field, but a crypto patent adds serious weight.
The problem, says Paypal, is that cryptocurrency trade transaction times are too slow, and customers are choosing traditional payment methods instead.
Paypal could change all that, and crypto would love the boost.
But Paypal crypto sentiments haven’t always been positive. It’s a new love.
Last month, its execs started touting a bright future for bitcoin and mainstream adoption. CFO John Rainey went as far as to say bitcoin could become so popular that it will be “used every day”.
For the crypto world, this is a far cry from earlier statements by Paypal that were much more skeptical. Paypal’s previous mantra was that the volatility of cryptocurrencies made them impossible to use for goods and services purchases, unless merchants could accept the volatility. Related: Trade War Fears Rattle Wall Street After Cohn Exit
It appears that Paypal now thinks they can.
It’s positive news for Paypal, and its share price, but it won’t move the stock like Kodak’s announcement earlier this year that it would be releasing ‘Kodakcoin’—a move that resulted a 120-percent price spike on the same day.
Paypal is already a digital giant, so a foray into the crypto world with a brand-new patent is great—but not shocking.
The timing of the Paypal patent announcement is also interesting. It comes at the same time as retail giant Amazon has announced its own interest in creating a sort of digital checking account that would be more attractive to young people.
Paypal stock is already up 84 percent over the past 12 months, making it one of the best performers on the S&P 500 Index. Since July 2015, the stock has seen a 120-percent return.
The only hit it took recently was in early February when eBay said that as of 2021, Paypal would no longer be its primary payment processor. The stock lost 11 percent on the news, but the dip was temporary and the eBay split has been priced in by now. Related: Is The Silver Rally Nearing Its End?
Investors seem confident that eBay’s move won’t harm Paypal. Though it will lose 15 percent in earnings in 2021, in those four years, Paypal will have swapped eBay for something else—and perhaps something even bigger.
The crypto patent is exactly the kind of forward movement investors want to see right now, and Paypal is the undeniable leader in the electronic payments market.
And, of course, cryptos are also hoping to get a boost from the Paypal patent.
By David Craggen for Safehaven.com
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