Paypal released the result of its books for the last 12 months – March 2022 to March 2023 – with a top-up of $339 million worth of crypto assets added to its account.
A breakdown of the assets showed that the $339 million was part of the overall $943 million posted by the payment giant. Amongst the cryptocurrencies held are bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, and litecoin.
Paypal explained that all of the crypto assets on its balance sheet are owned by customers and not the company. This shows that there has been an increase in the choice of users globally to use crypto, especially with already trusted financial institutions like Paypal.
Investments of over $2 billion; changes in net income
Paypal also stated that as of March 31, 2023, and December 31, 2022, its strategic investments totaled $2.2 billion and $2.1 billion, which is 15% and 14% of its total cash, cash equivalents, and short-term and long-term investment portfolios, respectively.
The company also said that it expects volatility in its net income (loss) in future periods due to changes in fair value related to investments in marketable equity securities, changes in observable prices, and impairments related to non-marketable equity securities.
In terms of its investments in technology and development, Paypal posted a decrease of $94 million in Q1 of 2023. This happened because of a reduction in costs related to contractors, consultants, and cloud computing services.
Money spent on sales and marketing also went down in the same period as a result of lower spending on marketing campaigns, user incentives, and employee-related costs.
while active accounts and total payment transactions increased by 1% and 13%, respectively. Also, its TPV (Total Payment Volume) went up by 10% in the first three months of 2023 to $355 billion, which is higher than the $323 billion reported in Q1 2022.
Paypal and crypto services
Paypal, with over 200 million global live accounts, has gradually adopted crypto over the years through partnerships with other platforms, especially crypto-based ones.
In 2022 alone, the firm received the full Bitlicense in the US which gives it permission to carry out virtual currency activities; integrated with Metamask; and announced that its US customers could transfer, send, and receive cryptocurrency with PayPal.
Then last month, in partnership with Venmo, Paypal granted Venmo users access to make transactions using crypto. This includes transferring, buying, and selling across external wallets and exchanges.
The company emphasized that all cryptocurrencies on its balance sheet were not in its custody, as users are responsible for their safety while Paypal gives adequate information and guidelines on how to stay safe. “We maintain the internal recordkeeping of our customers’ crypto assets, including the amount and type of crypto asset owned by each of our customers,” PayPal said.
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