Last year the European Commission opened a consultation about regulating digital assets and cryptocurrencies or what it refers to as crypto-assets. In June, responses were published, including a letter from Paypal stating that it has developed capabilities in the sector since withdrawing from Libra. This follows an earlier CoinDesk report stating PayPal and subsidiary Venmo will offer cryptocurrencies.
The company was one of the initial members to commit to Facebook’s Libra, but it subsequently withdrew along with several other major players.
In the letter to the EU, it outlined this as background: “In 2019, PayPal initially signed a non-binding letter of intent to participate in the Libra Association with the intention of learning more about the proposed use of blockchain technologies to provide financial services to unbanked populations across the globe.”
And it continued: “Since the project’s inception, PayPal has taken unilateral and tangible steps to further develop its capabilities in this area, and therefore – without questioning the value of the project – took the decision not to participate in the Libra Association and to continue to focus on advancing our existing mission and business priorities to democratize access to financial services.
There were several other interesting responses to the EC consultation, including one from Calibra, the Facebook wallet subsidiary (for Libra) and which has since been rebranded to novi.
