E-Commerce Giant Ebay Looking at Accepting Cryptocurrency for 187 Million Buyers, CEO Reveals

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Ebay is looking at cryptocurrency as a payment option for its 187 million buyers on the platform, the company’s CEO has revealed. The e-commerce giant is also exploring opportunities in the non-fungible token (NFT) business.

Ebay Looking Into Adding Cryptocurrency as Payment Option

Ebay CEO Jamie Iannone said in a CNBC interview on Monday that the company is looking at accepting cryptocurrency as a payment option.

He was asked about how Ebay is responding to the rise in popularity and adoption of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The CEO replied:

We are expanding the types of payments that we take. We now take Apple Pay and Google Pay. More choice for buyers … We will continue to look at other options, like cryptocurrency.

He added: “One of the great things about Ebay is that when there is a new trend, it just shows up on Ebay. That’s what we are seeing in areas like NFTs [non-fungible tokens], which we are looking at how we can explore that better.” He also noted that Ebay has “187 million buyers on the platform,” which was reported in the company’s Q1 earnings release.

Iannone was also specifically asked, “Does that mean you are getting into the NFT business?” He replied:

We are looking at it and exploring opportunities on how we can enable it on Ebay in an easy way.

Paypal was Ebay’s subsidiary until 2015 when the company spun off the payments giant to its shareholders. Paypal launched its crypto service last year and enabled crypto payments at millions of stores in March. Recently enable Venmo app users to buy, sell, and hold select cryptocurrencies.

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