The world’s largest payment company, PayPal, recently announced that it has agreed to acquire Curv, an Israeli-based crypto-security firm, as it expands its portfolio in cryptocurrencies and digital assets.
It is a deal that could open up new use cases for the crypto. PayPal had recently created a new business unit focused on blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies. Curv will be joining the new group.
Founded in 2018, Curv provides companies with digital asset security technology that is delivered as a cloud service. The acquisition by PayPal presents Curv with an opportunity to expand into a global market while providing the service to over 325 million PayPal users around the world.
“Great step by PayPal and this certainly makes me bullish on payment use cases in general,” Jonathan Habicht, founder of MoonRock Capital, a blockchain investment advisory firm, said on Tuesday.
PayPal is not the only investor deepening the use case for the crypto market. In February, global music icon and rapper, Jay Z and Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, announced they were putting together 500 bitcoin, which is currently worth $27.2 million in an endowment called trust.
According to Dorsey, the fund will be set up as a blind irrevocable trust used to fund development in Africa and India. Dorsey also donated $1 million to cryptocurrency policy think tank Coin Center, according to an announcement tweeted by the organisation’s director Jerry Brito.
Before now, use cases for cryptocurrencies have been limited by their potential to yield high returns. For instance, the price of bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, BNB, and several cryptocurrencies have been moving upward since the beginning of 2021. For many investors, the surging price movement is the biggest attraction to the market and, therefore, constitutes for them a primary use case, trading.
However, most decentralised cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, were created to solve problems and so have a wide range of powerful use cases.
“While cryptocurrencies are most often recognized as new monetary systems and financial networks, the public blockchain networks that they secure can be used to power diverse use cases and create new applications across industries,” said researchers at the World Economic Forum.
Apart from being a store of value, experts say cryptocurrencies can help address financial inclusion, particularly in regions like Africa. Crypto firms on the continent are coming up with financial tools that enable individuals to access financial services without opening bank accounts or visiting a local branch of a financial institution.
Luno, for instance, launched a Savings Wallet that allows users to save their crypto assets at an interest rate of 4 per cent to 7 per cent. The company, in March 2021, said it has paid out $500,000 in interest alone and will be adding Ethereum and USDC to the wallet. Binance also offers a flexible and locked savings feature called ‘Binance Earn,’ which provides an interest of up to 7 per cent per annum on some cryptocurrencies.