PayPal’s Schulman Says Crypto Will Reach $200 Million Volume In Months

PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said he is optimistic about the chances of the company’s cryptocurrency service, explaining it could reach $200 million in volume within months, Cointelegraph reported.

Schulman spoke with Forbes Associate Editor Michael del Castillo about the future of cryptocurrencies.

Cointelegraph reported that the Coinbase Commerce platform, which supports crypto payments for online retailers, took 13 months to reach that much, according to del Castillo. But that was partially because of the 8,000 retailers using Coinbase for payment services.

Schulman said PayPal has over 375 million customers of digital wallets and 30 million merchants on the platform. He cited those numbers as reasons he believes the company might have a shot at doing it faster, per Cointelegraph.

Talking with Castillo, Schulman said that the next several years will likely see huge changes in the world of payments, with “more changes over the next five years compared to the progress that has been made in the previous 30 years,” Cointelegraph reported.

“We are moving into the era of digital currencies, and those digital currencies hold tremendous promise, whether these are cryptocurrencies or central bank digital currencies,” Schulman said, according to the report. “I believe digital currencies can increase the utility of payments and make the financial system more inclusive and less expensive.”

Schulman said a chief challenge of finance today is the fact that many people have been excluded from the financial system, especially in situations like in the U.S. as people needed bank accounts to receive stimulus checks from the government, Cointelegraph reported.

Schulman said it took too long to receive money, which became even more of a burden for lower-income Americans. Crypto offerings like PayPal’s could be a solution, according to Cointelegraph.

PayPal announced in November that any of its users, then numbered at 350 million, would be able to deposit bitcoin or other crypto in their account and use it with 26 million merchants.