Cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm over the course of the previous decade. What had begun as an answer to the 2008 Economic Crisis had quickly evolved into one of the most popular, versatile, and volatile industries that the world had ever seen. Nearly everyone these days is either a crypto holder or has at the very least heard about what cryptocurrencies are. Bitcoin is, of course, the flagship cryptocurrency, but other altcoins such as Ethereum, Binance Coin, Cardano, and most recently, Dogecoin have all managed to capture the attention and imagination of the community.
So, it was only natural that an increasing number of big-time companies, firms, businesses, and organizations would want to get involved. This is what prompted banking giants Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase and Co. to invest, with other payment processing companies such as PayPal doing the same. Even the likes of Shopify and WooCommerce had recently added the option to pay in crypto. Most recently, however, one of the world’s biggest e-commerce corporations, eBay, has also decided to try its hand at investing in cryptocurrency.
eBay looking to join PayPal
eBay Inc. had announced a provisional plan to hopefully start incorporating crypto payment systems into its list of available options for its respective customers. eBay is currently ranked as the 66th highest valuable company in the world today, and the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Jamie Iannone had said that demand for crypto-based payments had reached an all-time high which prompted the company to seriously consider getting involved in the world of cryptocurrency. Much like PayPal before it, eBay is looking to take advantage of the ever-growing customer base regarding crypto and NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
Furthermore, although eBay had managed to close out 2020 with a profit, it never stopped paying attention to what was transpiring in the cryptocurrency industry and who was actively getting involved in it.
Trillion-dollar market the target for eBay
As aforementioned, PayPal is already enabling its customers to pay using cryptocurrency. Additionally, others such as Venmo and Visa have also allowed their respective customers to do the same.
In the case of eBay, its interests lie towards eventually being strong enough to enter the trillion-dollar market and hopes that its involvement in the world of cryptocurrency will enable it to do just that. Of course, there are many unanswered questions at this point in time, such as what coins are going to be included and excluded and how are shipping, gas, and transaction fees going to be handled, as well as other things such as discount and reward systems. We still also do not know as to the number of reserves the company is willing to buy or what technology it will be using to ensure a seamless transition.
Nevertheless, eBay’s involvement is a good sign for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole as it is one step further in establishing the industry as being both legitimate as well as a true alternative in this day and age.