PayPal in partnerships with Bitcoin processors

New York -- PayPal has made its first direct entry into the virtual currency space. The company announced via a blog post that it has entered into agreements with leading Bitcoin payment processors BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin. The agreements let PayPal’s digital goods merchants in North America accept Bitcoin, with a simple integration through the PayPal Payments Hub.



“We chose to work with BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin because of our commitment to offering innovative and safer ways for businesses to accept payments,” said Scott Ellison, senior director corporate strategy, PayPal. “All three companies have taken steps to ensure that they know their customers and that those customers are offered certain protections. We believe digital goods merchants will be excited to work with these industry-leading companies to sell ringtones, games and music and get paid with Bitcoin.”



Ellison added that the agreements do not mean that PayPal has added Bitcoin as a currency in its digital wallet or that Bitcoin payments will be processed on its payments platform.



“PayPal has always embraced innovation, but always in ways that make payments safer and more reliable for our customers,” he said. “Our approach to Bitcoin is no different. That’s why we’re proceeding gradually, supporting Bitcoin in some ways today and holding off on other ways until we see how things develop.”