PayPal-owned Venmo is continuing its journey into DeFi this month. Late last month, the California-based company unveiled a new peer-to-peer crypto transfer capability. The new feature enables users to transfer crypto to friends and family using Venmo, PayPal, and external wallets and exchanges.
Venmo first introduced crypto to its users in 2021, but the capabilities were limited. Within the Venmo app, users could only buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency. This month’s development adds to the company’s crypto wallet capabilities, rounding out the utility from saving and investing into spending and giving.
The company reports that, over the past year, more than 74% of its crypto customers have continued to hold crypto in their accounts. “In addition,” today’s announcement said, “since the beginning of 2023, nearly 50% of customers with existing crypto balances have added to their crypto holdings on Venmo.”
To send their crypto to friends and family, customers use the Crypto tab within the Venmo app and use the transfer arrows to transfer a select amount of their crypto to a Venmo account, or to a recipient’s PayPal wallet address or other external wallet. To receive crypto, users show their unique crypto address QR code with other users.
Select Venmo customers will have the ability to send crypto transfers starting this month. The company will roll out the new capability to more users over the coming months.