MetaMask plans to leverage PayPal to “drive more successful on-ramp transactions.”
In an announcement on Dec. 14, MetaMask parent company ConsenSys said it had teamed up with PayPal to let users purchase ether from within the app through its payment interface. Users will also be able to transfer ETH held in their PayPal accounts directly to the self-custodial crypto wallet.
The option will be initially available only to users based in the U.S.
Our US users will now be able to fund their wallet with ETH via @PayPal! 🦊
Rolling out in the next weeks in the US, excl. Hawaii, through our mobile app (make sure to update to v5.13.0)🧵👇https://t.co/392JwFYF3m
— MetaMask 🦊🫰 (@MetaMask) December 14, 2022
MetaMask Product Manager Lorenzo Santos described the integration with PayPal as one that would make it easy for users to explore the Web3 ecosystem.
PayPal first opened its doors to cryptocurrency in 2020, when it allowed users to buy, sell and hold select cryptocurrencies on its platform. The payments giant supports only Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin – with the latter two choices drawing a fair amount of criticism from crypto industry proponents.
News of the Paypal and MetaMask partnership was met with a mixed response from the crypto community. Some users welcomed it as a move towards greater mass adoption of crypto, while others opined that it was instead a step towards mass surveillance and centralization.
Last month, ConsenSys came under fire for a privacy policy update which disclosed that IP addresses and wallet information were temporarily stored when users sent transactions using the remote procedure call (RPC) provider Infura on MetaMask.
After a considerable amount of backlash from the crypto community, ConsenSys announced a series of updates to its policies around collecting user data – one of which was bringing down the time it holds IP and wallet information to seven days.
