Online payments giant PayPal held nearly $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency on its balance sheet by the end of Q1 2023, according to a 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The filing, dated for the quarterly period ending March 31 2023, showed that PayPal held $943 million worth of customers’ Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC) on its balance sheet as of that time. None of its crypto belongs to anyone other than its customers.
That’s a $339 million increase in customer crypto assets from the previous quarter, representing a 56% rise. This is largely in line with Bitcoin’s 72% rise during that time, from $16,547 on December 31 to $28,478 on March 31.
The company’s current crypto breakdown consists of $499 million worth of BTC, $362 million in ETH, and the other $82 million in BCH and LTC.
PayPal explained in its 10-Q that it lets customers buy, sell, receive, send, and hold said cryptocurrencies, and use the proceeds from their respective sales to purchase goods and services at checkout.
“We maintain the internal recordkeeping of our customers’ crypto assets, including the amount and type of crypto asset owned by each of our customers,” PayPal said in the filing.
PayPal also said that it will fully protect customers from unauthorized crypto purchases or sales, and from unauthorized crypto transfers up to $50,000 lifetime.
The payments company enabled customers to withdraw crypto assets to personal wallets in June.
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said he was “bullish on cryptocurrencies of all kinds” during a web summit event in 2020, after admitting that he personally owned Bitcoin in 2019.
In March 2022, he added that CBDCs, stablecoins, and digital wallets will “redefine a lot of the financial world going forward.”
PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has shown particular respect for Bitcoin’s power in the past, suggesting it could undermine the global strength of the US dollar. However, his VC firm cashed out of all of its crypto holdings in 2023 after HODLing for 8 years.