American financial services giant Paypal is on track to launch a new investor-focused product dubbed “Invest at Paypal.”
Per a CNBC report, the offering is targeted at U.S customers. The revelation of this move was made by two sources familiar with the matter and comes the following report that Paypal has hired Rich Hagen, a market brokerage veteran, to head the seemingly new unit.
Paypal’s long term ambitions to explore growing opportunities in the financial services industry has been re-echoed by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Dan Schulman. The company’s intentions to offer stock trading products will directly take the competition to unicorns in the area, including Robinhood and Square’s Cash App. Paypal is notably seeking to cash in on the growing interest in alternative investment offerings, a trend that added millions of new investors in the first half of the year.
Paypal has been evolving remarkably in its product offerings. Blockchain.News reported that the company began offering cryptocurrency trading services to its US customers back in November last year. The dive into the volatile world of cryptocurrencies with buying and selling support for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has spelt great things for the firm.
In its fourth-quarter earnings report released in February, the company reported a boosted transaction figure of about $277 billion for the quarter, which was processed by its platform. Paypal noted that the trading of digital currencies played a crucial role in helping it hit that number. To drive more growth, the company has expanded its digital currency offering into the United Kingdom.
The move to explore stock trading options may serve as a complement to the role of crypto is now a platform in Paypal’s business. High yielding products are becoming common, seeing the GameStop mania earlier in the year. A source of strength for Paypal in this ambitious pursuit is its positive relationship with regulators, a luxury most brokerages are lagging in.
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