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PayPal and Venmo are getting third-party crypto wallet support

By Brittany Roston/

PayPal and Venmo, two popular financial apps, will soon allow users to send their cryptocurrency assets to a third-party wallet, eliminating the need to hold the digital coins on either platform. This is a more secure option for people who may have a considerable amount of cryptocurrencies, though others who prefer the convenience can leave the coins on their PayPal or Venmo accounts.

PayPal's Jose Fernandez da Ponte revealed the news during the recent Consensus 2021 event held by CoinDesk. Both PayPal and Venmo only recently added support for cryptocurrencies, but it has been limited to buying, selling, holding, and Checkout with Crypto — meaning that if you purchase crypto with either platform, the digital coins can't be sent to your third-party wallet.

Though keeping a certain amount of cryptocurrency in your PayPal or Venmo accounts is convenient for those who use them often, it is inadvisable to keep a large sum of crypto anywhere but a wallet you fully control, such as a hardware wallet or one set up on your private computer.

PayPal launched with support for only a few of the big cryptocurrencies, but they're the same ones you're likely to use when making a purchase — bitcoin, etherium, and litecoin. Exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase enable users to acquire, sell, trade, and hold a greater variety of coins, but may be more intimidating for those new to the world of digital money.

The ability to easily purchase one of these major coins using your existing PayPal account is far easier than making a wire transfer to a big crypto exchange. Now that third-party wallet support is inbound, it'll make PayPal and Venmo two major options for the average consumer who wants to acquire some crypto and for enthusiasts who want the ease of buying things with it.

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