Paypal Users Receive Cryptocurrency Warning Email

This week Paypal users reported receiving an official-looking email from Paypal, warning users about “activity [involving] the trading or transfer of crypto currency [sic] which is prohibited under our Acceptable Use Policy,” asking the receiver to “cease any activity that results in the trading or transfer of crypto currency.”“I am a PayPal user,” David Veksler of the Foundation for Economic Education and The Atlanta Bitcoin Embassy explained to News.Bitcoin.com. “My account is 17 years old. This morning I got the email linked in my message.” Friday, March 16 Mr. Veksler, and presumably a sizeable chunk of Paypal’s nearly 200 million users, received an official-looking email seemingly from the company, complete with letterhead, titled Cryptocurrency Warning.

The two decades-old popular online payments system includes founders such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. The company’s revenue routinely ranks in billions, and it operates in over 200 markets and in 25 currencies around the world. Paypal is often seen as a direct competitor to cryptocurrencies, which wish to remove its centralized business model from everyday transactions. The company has made conflicting statements about crypto in general and bitcoin in particular, but there’s no denying they can see the future, as just this month it was discovered the company applied for crypto-related patents.