PayPal Confirms It Is ‘Pausing’ Crypto Purchases for UK Customers

PayPal is “temporarily pausing” crypto purchases for British customers. UK users won’t be able to buy cryptocurrencies on the platform, the company confirmed to Decrypt today.

“We are temporarily pausing the ability for U.K. customers to buy crypto through PayPal as we work to satisfy new regulatory requirements,” a representative said.

A PayPal spokesperson did not expand on why the platform would be pausing purchases, but added that users who “currently hold crypto can keep it on our platform at no charge and are also able to sell their currency at any time.”

Screenshots of an email reportedly sent to British customers circulated on Twitter yesterday, suggesting that PayPal would “temporarily pause” crypto buys in October. PayPal would not confirm to Decrypt if the screenshots were legit.

UK customers could only buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

British regulators are getting stricter with crypto: Last month, the Financial Conduct Authority said that companies promoting cryptocurrencies must abide by their existing financial promotion regime by October 8.

The payments platform first launched the feature back in 2020 for American customers. Customers were not able to move the currencies out of their PayPal accounts at first; PayPal held the assets on its users’ behalf.

PayPal then gave British customers the option in 2021—again, only to buy, sell and hold digital assets. Last year, the platform finally allowed its users to move their crypto to external wallets and hardware devices instead of just holding them on PayPal.

PayPal last week announced the launch of a native dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by cash equivalents and short-term treasuries. It will run on the Ethereum blockchain and be issued by Paxos Trust Co.