70 Million Venmo users can now buy and sell Bitcoin and other crypto

[ConnerDalfino]

Users of PayPal's Venmo mobile payment app can now purchase, keep, and sell bitcoin, ether, litecoin, and bitcoin cash. Users can also share their cryptocurrency purchases with their friends through Venmo's social stream. The transition is a big step toward mainstreaming cryptocurrencies. Last year, New York regulators granted PayPal a license to participate in crypto operations.

Will it resemble a bull run? Isn't it all just internal accounting if the coins are owned by Venmo?

Your thoughts?

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[OmegaStarScream]

It's good because it will help cryptocurrencies gain more exposure but it's also bad because there is no point if users can't withdraw funds to other exchanges or to their own personal wallets.

[Lucius]

I also agree that news like this has a positive impact, because they send a message that cryptocurrencies are a legitimate thing that anyone can use. However, this way of owning a cryptocurrency is not something that should become commonplace since the user can do nothing but buy and sell crypto within an app - and this is very far from actually owning a cryptocurrency.

Of course this is a simplified way that allows anyone to be a part of the game, but the difference in ownership is huge for someone who has a non-custodial wallet and for someone who uses Venmo or PayPal for crypto.

What I don't like at all is enabling BCH trading in almost all services of this type - which in my opinion is a bad move that will confuse many to buy the cheaper Bitcoin - the only luck is that they will not be able to send it to the wrong address as is the case with those who buy on real crypto exchanges.

[dkbit98]

Venmo is owned by Paypal and they announced plans for this to happen months before but you can't really use cryptocurrencies from Venmo to pay or send money, and you can't use them to make any purchases with Venmo.
Same thing as for Paypal, you can't really move any crypto from your Venmo account, so it's another Bitcoin black hole, and I don't understand why anyone would use Venmo for Bitcoin.
One more stupid thing is limits, so you can make maximum $20,000 in cryptocurrency purchases per week and maximum $50,000 in cryptocurrency purchases in one year!

Let's also look at the fees for purchasing and selling cryptocurrencies with Venmo:

$1.00 - $24.99         $0.50 min.
$25.00 - $100.00       2.3%
$100.01 - $200.00     2.0%
$200.01 - $1000.00   1.8%
>$1000+                  1.5%

https://venmo.com/about/fees

I would not suggest people to use Venmo for holding or purchasing Bitcoin, because it is just rebranded Paypal and you don't have ownership and private keys for your coins.

[mk4]

Will it resemble a bull run? Isn't it all just internal accounting if the coins are owned by Venmo?

If PayPal's(which should be far larger) crypto thingy didn't have any instant significant effect on price, I don't think Venmo will. But all in all, this should obviously be a net positive for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.

[hatshepsut93]

Will it resemble a bull run? Isn't it all just internal accounting if the coins are owned by Venmo?

Even if a lot of Venmo users decided to buy Bitcoin, it might not cause much effect on Bitcoin's price, because the company would be buying Bitcoins on OTC markets to avoid causing more volatility. But it's also unlikely that buying Bitcoin with Venmo will be popular, the fees are disgusting, and you just get an IOU, this is 1000 times worse than centralized exchanges, which are already pretty bad. No real Bitcoin enthusiast would agree to these terms. Most of these buyers would probably be people who only recently heard about Bitcoin and decided to throw $100 to see if they can profit in this bull run.

[BrewMaster]

Will it resemble a bull run? Isn't it all just internal accounting if the coins are owned by Venmo?

we are already in a bull run and a couple of days with a small drop has not changed that. but this news is great, it is another step in mass adoption direction. the exposure alone is going to make bitcoin a lot more popular even if the bitcoin purchases there don't affect the price directly they are still bringing a lot of other people into bitcoin world.

[iTradeChips]

Will it resemble a bull run? Isn't it all just internal accounting if the coins are owned by Venmo?

we are already in a bull run and a couple of days with a small drop has not changed that. but this news is great, it is another step in mass adoption direction. the exposure alone is going to make bitcoin a lot more popular even if the bitcoin purchases there don't affect the price directly they are still bringing a lot of other people into bitcoin world.

If that is the goal, I mean to bring so many people into bitcoin, then they might be able to make it work. But with the fees and the vile resistance of the Bitcoin old timers and a system where you cannot transfer your Bitcoins to another wallet. The product is doomed to fail I would say, as no Bitcoin enthusiast and investor would do anything with the rebranded Paypal. Let's see how this will work out in the next few months.

[stompix]

Your thoughts?

That you should mention for the rest of the world this changes nothing from the first Paypal announcement as Venmo is only for the US and you must be a US resident and have a US bank account in order to use it.

So probably there is little left of the mass of users who wanted to buy Bitcoin and have not chosen PP but will use their complementary app and if some will do they will do it for small sums of money, indeed it might be a lot of transactions but in the end, if anyone is spending just 5$ it won't lead to anything spectacular. Of course, it's a step forward but it won't change as much or get as much attention as the first move by PP did, not by far.

[mk4]

The product is doomed to fail I would say, as no Bitcoin enthusiast and investor would do anything with the rebranded Paypal. Let's see how this will work out in the next few months.

I don't think so. Let's not forget that not everyone who buys bitcoin is an enthusiast; because if everyone was really true enthusiasts, we most probably wouldn't be having 50-70% price drops. Unfortunately, the fact is that a lot of people just buy into the hype hence why a lot of people easily sell just because of some FUD.

[famososMuertos]

It's good because it will help cryptocurrencies gain more exposure but it's also bad because there is no point if users can't withdraw funds to other exchanges or to their own personal wallets.

That's right, and it's the way other old e-wallets like Neteller and Skrill have been working for almost two years or more.
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As always is important the obviousness of not having control of your cryptos (seeds) but if you use these ewallets in related niches, believe me it can be a great advantage.

These traditional wallets must take these options as an added value and give them their correct use, if you are a Fiat user, this is ideal for the transition to Fiat=>crypto world. But if you have been in the sense of crypto-crypto or crypto=>Fiat, this is merely good news, but you should know that there are better options for your bitcoin.

[dothebeats]

It's a nice little  touch, though not really that great when we are talking about positive net effect on the whole crypto scene. What's good in purchasing bitcoin if you cannot take it out of the platform that you purchased it from? Then again some people will argue that this will help people learn the ropes and 'get involved' before diving on the murky waters of cryptocurrencies, which is true in a way though still lacking a lot when it comes to the feeling of actually owning an actual bitcoin.