PayPal Held $604M of Customers' Crypto as of Year-End 2022

The payments company held $291 million of bitcoin and $250 million of ether, with the rest comprising litecoin and bitcoin cash.

AccessTimeIconFeb 10, 2023 at 12:57 p.m. UTC
Updated Feb 10, 2023 at 4:23 p.m. UTC
Consensus 2023 Logo
Join the most important conversation in crypto and Web3 taking place in Austin, Texas, April 26-28.

Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.

Consensus 2023 Logo
Join the most important conversation in crypto and Web3 taking place in Austin, Texas, April 26-28.

PayPal (PYPL) held a total of $604 million of bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) for its customers as of Dec. 31, according to its annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Almost 90% of the amount was divided between the two largest cryptocurrencies by market value: $291 million in BTC and $250 million in ETH. The remaining $63 million is made up of LTC and BCH. PayPal did not provide a breakdown of the two.

The figure compares with $690 million held as of the end of September, and corresponds to a period that saw sharp declines in crypto valuations following the collapse of exchange FTX.

The payments company has been allowing customers to buy and sell crypto since October 2020, though has only recently begun to disclose specific holdings of different coins in its SEC filings. This granularity is now required by the SEC as per Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121), introduced in March last year.

Despite offering crypto trading since 2020, PayPal did not allow its users to withdraw coins off the platform to external wallets until June last year.

UPDATE (Feb. 10, 15:56 UTC): Adds last paragraph on when PayPal allowed crypto withdrawals.



DISCLOSURE

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.

CoinDesk - Unknown

Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.


Learn more about Consensus 2023, CoinDesk’s longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.


CoinDesk - Unknown

Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.


Read more about