US MetaMask users can now buy Ethereum through PayPal – thanks to a software integration. The feature is still rolling out.
The popular wallet provider MetaMask announced its partnership with online payments giant PayPal “for a new way to buy crypto” on Wednesday.
According to a tweet from the official MetaMask twitter account, its continental US users can now “fund their wallet with ETH via PayPal,” and that the wallet provider will slowly roll out the feature “in the coming weeks.”
Through adding a PayPal integration to its software wallet, users can purchase Ethereum directly from MetaMask’s mobile application. MetaMask’s browser extension already offers US-based users the option to purchase crypto from their wallet through services like CoinbasePay, Transak, MoonPay, and Wire.
Our US users will now be able to fund their wallet with ETH via @PayPal! 🦊
Rolling out in the next weeks in the US, excl. Hawaii, through our mobile app (make sure to update to v5.13.0)🧵👇https://t.co/392JwFYF3m
— MetaMask 🦊💙 (@MetaMask) December 14, 2022
Upon the launch, MetaMask Product Manager Lorenzo Santos notes “this integration with PayPal will allow our US users to not just buy crypto seamlessly through MetaMask, but also to easily explore the Web3 ecosystem.”
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It’s expected that MetaMask’s new PayPal integration would help streamline the process of getting into crypto. Newbies can now enjoy the convenience of purchasing crypto through PayPal, and have amounts directly transferred to their wallet. Usually, users would purchase crypto from an exchange, and then would send purchased amounts to their wallet – adding an extra step in the process.
Santos has added that US users can also expect to see the PayPal integration expanded onto MetaMask’s desktop browser extension, within the next quarter.
When making purchases of ETH through PayPal on MetaMask, Santos confirms that MetaMask’s 1% service fee will apply to all purchases, including any applicable PayPal fees incurred.
As for how MetaMask is going to approach Apple’s notorious 30% in-app purchase tax – Santos said that MetaMask “cannot provide any information regarding this at the moment.”
It remains unclear as to whether users making ETH purchases via PayPal on the MetaMask mobile app would be subject to Apple’s 30% in-app purchase service fee.
MetaMask is an EVM-only wallet – which means that it cannot support blockchains other than Ethereum, its sidechains, and layer-2 protocols. MetaMask’s parent company, ConsenSys, also happens to be run by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, and provides services focused on the Ethereum ecosystem.
PayPal’s partnership with MetaMask is the latest effort to keep up with crypto. Back in 2020, PayPal started offering users services in buying and selling crypto – but only offered Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. Users who held crypto via PayPal were unable to move their crypto to external wallets such as Coinbase, MetaMask, and hardware wallets until June 2022.
