MoonPay has just announced the introduction of a new fiat on-ramp for customers in the European Union and the United Kingdom. Soon, customers all over Europe will have the option to use PayPal to buy crypto on the MoonPay platform.
The integration is now active for 1% of European users, and it will be fully available across the region in the upcoming weeks. However, residents of Croatia, Iceland, and Hungary will not have access to this feature.
In a recent press release, MoonPay highlighted PayPal’s popularity as the third most used payment method in the United States, after Apple Pay and traditional bank cards. Ivan Soto-Wright, the CEO and co-founder of the company, emphasized how using PayPal can offer a more user-friendly experience for new customers.
The choice to use PayPal as a fiat on-ramp for MoonPay is already open to customers in 48 U.S. states, excluding New York and Texas.
In other news, PayPal made headlines in August 2023 when it introduced its U.S. dollar stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD). This stablecoin is backed by cash and short-term cash equivalents at a 1:1 ratio. Other stablecoins like Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT are also overcollateralized.
Fast forward to May 2024, PayPal decided to deploy PYUSD on the Solana network to take advantage of Solana’s high throughput and low transaction costs. This move was aimed at making the stablecoin more accessible for day-to-day purchases and personal transactions.
Originally launched on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token, the stablecoin faced limitations due to Ethereum’s low transaction speed and high costs caused by network congestion. Following the deployment on Solana, PayPal announced additional privacy features for PYUSD on Solana, such as “confidential transfers,” allowing merchants to hide transaction amounts from the public while still complying with regulations.
Stablecoins, whether backed by real cash reserves or algorithmic, play a crucial role in the digital currency space. They provide liquidity, improve banking services for underserved areas, reduce transaction fees, and offer a more efficient solution for international payments.