Nigeria has embraced Bitcoin in a big way and numbers don’t lie.
Nigerians are the clear leader in cryptocurrency in Africa, according to reports.
Whether you’re looking to make a larger investment or you just want to dabble in cryptocurrencies, you can purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin through PayPal. And, soon, you’ll be able to pay various merchants using your cryptocurrency stash—which PayPal will automatically convert into dollars for you at the point of purchase.
The digital payments company made a big push into crypto recently, and the platform now allows users to buy, sell, hold, and checkout with cryptocurrencies, the mobile wallet owned by PayPal.
Those coins you’re buying are not technically yours
The biggest quick of PayPal’s seemingly easy implementation is that once completed, your cryptocurrency purchases are locked into its system. You can’t transfer your assets to another service or wallet (or import any more in).
Also Read: Why Dogecoin’s Price Is Going Up
Everything you do is tied directly to your PayPal account, which means you’ll want to have strong security in place (including two-factor authentication) to protect your investment.
So note that those coins you’re buying are not technically yours.
You’re stuck with PayPal
Typically, when you purchase bitcoin, you are given two things to make that ownership official: A public and a private key pair. The public key is your wallet address, and the private key gives you control of that wallet.
With PayPal, you have access to your public address, but the company controls the private key.
In other words, you’re getting the convenience of PayPal, but you’re also stuck with PayPal.
This means that customers can’t move their bitcoin to cold storage, nor can they transfer tokens to a wallet outside of the PayPal ecosystem.
Making a profit
Purchasing bitcoin via PayPal has been compared to buying a financial contract. Because you can’t remove your coins from the platform, nor can you send them anywhere, it is almost as though you are buying a derivative of bitcoin, instead of the real thing.
As with any options contract, the buyer stands to gain – or lose – quite a lot of money.
The price of bitcoin hit its all-time high above $63,000 last month, and some analysts say the cryptocurrency still has a lot of room to run higher.
Surging cryptocurrency prices could also prove critical to PayPal’s bottom line.
The company makes money by taking a percentage cut each time fiat is exchanged for a cryptocurrency, and vice versa.
If you already have a PayPal account, essentially all it takes to get in the crypto game is clicking a little button under bitcoin that says “Buy.”
