PayPal’s finance chief says the company is unlikely to invest in cryptocurrencies, but sees massive potential in digital wallets

PayPal’s finance chief says the company is unlikely to invest in cryptocurrencies, but sees massive potential in digital wallets

PayPal is unlikely to invest cash in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, John Rainey, the company's chief financial officer told CNBC on Thursday. 

The payments-processor instead prefers to spend on assets that complement services it currently provides. It also sees massive potential in the digital wallets space, and currently serves 360 million such wallets.

"We're not going to invest corporate cash, probably, in sort of financial assets like that," Rainey told host Jim Cramer on CNBC's "Mad Money" show. "But we want to capitalize on this growth opportunity that's in front of us."

PayPal still believes that the transition to digital forms of currencies is unavoidable. In October last year, the company opened its service to cryptocurrency purchases and sales, including bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin. Furthermore, over 26 million merchants using the platform are now able to accept cryptocurrencies as a funding source.

Two months after the announcement, CEO Dan Schulman called digital wallets a "natural complement to digital currencies."

More big-name players are entering the crypto space. Tesla this week announced a $1.5 billion bitcoin investment, Mastercard said it would open its network to select cryptocurrencies, and Bank of New York Mellon is to begin transacting bitcoin for its clients.   

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