Two major fintechs, PayPal and Robinhood are both looking set to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Revolut, with plans to allow crypto withdrawals to third-party wallets – a step that could see the platforms intensify their competition with crypto exchanges.
Christine Brown, Robinhood Cryptos recently appointed Chief Operating Officer, told Decrypt that the feature was forthcoming, but stopped short of “setting a deadline,” adding that it was “a difficult tool to implement.”
Brown was also quoted as explaining that traders need to be “coddled into learning that crypto transactions are irreversible,” as well as educated about the risks of the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry and the price of gas fees.
She said:
“We want to make sure that we build an experience – not just the technical foundation of sending and receiving coins, but the user experience around it – that is intuitive, that makes sense, and that reduces risk for our users.”
Brown went on to claim that the next steps could see the platform turn into “a kind of financial super app,” similar to Coinbase, with staking and lending functions also in the pipelines.
Meanwhile, PayPals blockchain, crypto and digital currencies business unit lead Jose Fernandez da Ponte, said during Coindesk's Consensus event:
“We want to make it as open as possible, and we want to give choice to our consumers, something that will let them pay in any way they want to pay. They want to bring their crypto to us so they can use it in commerce, and we want them to be able to take the crypto they acquired with us and take it to the destination of their choice.”
Da Ponte, like Brown, did not specify exactly when this new feature would be made available.
On Reddit, some users mused that the “good news” might “make PayPal a competitor to Binance and Coinbase” – particularly if the payments giant decided to add support for more altcoins.
Revolut last month began allowing its UK-based premium account holders to withdraw bitcoin (BTC) to third-party wallets in a beta mode. Withdrawals were initially restricted to just over USD 700 per day.
