PayPal will launch services for buying, selling and storing cryptocurrencies in 2021. Users will be able to make transactions with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.

PayPal, world-leading payment system, will offer services for buying, selling and storing cryptocurrencies. Its mobile payment service Venmo will add these services in 2021. The list of supported coins include bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. The new services will go live in cooperation with cryptocurrency firm Paxos Trust Company.

PayPal hopes the service will encourage global use of virtual coins and prepare its network for new digital currencies that central banks and companies may develop, President and Chief Executive Dan Schulman said in an interview.

Users from the United States will be the first to access the new features. New services will be available to them in the coming weeks. PayPal plans to expand the service to its peer-to-peer payment app Venmo and some other countries in the first half of 2021.

From 2021, PayPal customers will be able to use cryptocurrency for purchases at 26 million merchants on its network. Crypto payments on PayPal will be made using fiat currencies such as US dollars, which means merchants will receive payments in fiat instead of virtual coins, the company explained.

PayPal has 346 million active accounts worldwide and processed $222 billion in payments in Q2 2020.

Bitcoin jumped in price after PayPal plans had been published. The price of the coin soared to $12,500.