MoonPay has revealed the incorporation of an additional fiat on-ramp for clients in the European Union and the United Kingdom. Soon, customers throughout Europe will have the option to utilize PayPal to purchase crypto on the MoonPay platform.
The integration is currently operational for 1% of European users, and a complete rollout across the region is expected in the upcoming weeks, excluding residents of Croatia, Iceland, and Hungary.
In a statement, MoonPay highlighted PayPal’s ranking as the third most popular payment method in the United States, following Apple Pay and traditional bank cards. Ivan Soto-Wright, the CEO and co-founder of the company, emphasized PayPal’s capability to offer a more convenient user experience for new clients.
The availability of using PayPal as a fiat on-ramp for MoonPay is currently open to customers in 48 U.S. states, with exceptions in New York and Texas.
In other news, in August 2023, PayPal introduced its U.S. dollar stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), which is backed by cash and short-term cash equivalents at a 1:1 ratio. This stablecoin joins other overcollateralized stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT, the largest stablecoin by market capitalization.
More recently, in May 2024, PayPal launched PYUSD on the Solana network to benefit from Solana’s high throughput and low transaction fees. This move was aimed at facilitating the regular use of the stablecoin for everyday purchases and personal transactions.
Initially launched on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token, PYUSD faced limitations due to Ethereum’s low transaction speed and high costs caused by network congestion. Following the deployment on Solana, PayPal also announced that PYUSD on Solana would incorporate discrete privacy options called “confidential transfers,” allowing merchants to conceal transaction amounts from the public while remaining compliant with regulations.
Stablecoins play a crucial role as tokenized digital representations of fiat currencies, either backed by real cash reserves or functioning algorithmically without cash reserves. These stablecoins provide liquidity, enhance access to banking services in underserved regions, reduce transaction expenses, and offer a more efficient solution for cross-border payments.