PayPal is diving headfirst into the cryptocurrency market. In its latest move to plummet further into the world of crypto, the platform just announced that it's acquiring cryptosecurity company, Curv.

PayPal Dives Deeper Into Cryptocurrency

A press release on the PayPal Newsroom detailed PayPal's acquisition of Curv, a company that lets customers safely stow away cryptocurrency. Its cloud-based infrastructure eliminates the need for a physical wallet—it instead lets users access their digital assets from the cloud.

Curv was founded in 2018, and is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. A quick look on Curv's website reveals that the company uses a model that takes private keys out of transactions. It instead uses multi-party computation (MPC) protocols to establish "keyless cryptographic security."

PayPal hopes that this acquisition will help "accelerate and expand" PayPal's support for cryptocurrencies. When speaking about the acquisition, Jose Fernadez da Ponte, PayPal's vice president and general manager of blockchain, crypto, and digital currency, stated:

The acquisition of Curv is part of our effort to invest in the talent and technology to realize our vision for a more inclusive financial system. During our conversations with Curv's team, we've been impressed by their technical talent, entrepreneurial spirit, and the thinking behind the technology they've built in the last few years.

PayPal only recently started taking baby steps towards becoming a crypto-friendly platform. In an October 2020 press release, the platform announced that all its customers will finally be able to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies. However, PayPal customers are only limited to four types of cryptocurrencies, which include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

In that same press release, PayPal CEO Dan Shulman hinted at PayPal's future focus on digital currencies, remarking: "We are eager to work with central banks and regulators around the world to offer our support, and to meaningfully contribute to shaping the role that digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce"

PayPal's earnings report for the final quarter of 2020 also gave us a preview of what's to come in 2021. According to the report, PayPal plans on rolling out cryptocurrency support on Venmo, its popular mobile payment service.

Related: Venmo vs. PayPal: Same But Different?

Cryptocurrency Is the Future of Payments

Digital currencies are only getting more popular. The fact that PayPal is getting serious about letting customers access cryptocurrency from its platform only shows how widespread cryptocurrency is becoming. Pretty soon, we may all be paying for online orders using Bitcoin or Ethereum without even batting an eye.