EBay is currently in talks to incorporate Bitcoin into its Braintree subsidiary
Braintree provides a payment processing infrastructure for companies like vehicle hiring service Uber and rental service Airbnb, among many others, so this move would open up Bitcoin to several new markets.
Braintree is part of EBay’s PayPal unit. PayPal representatives have been meeting with several different companies which facilitate Bitcoin transactions, including Coinbase.
Braintree was acquired in December by EBay for $800 million in cash, and was at the time processing more than $12 billion USD annually.
Though EBay itself has not yet begun accepting Bitcoin entirely, they’ve certainly flirted with the idea.
They allow users to buy and sell digital currency over EBay, effectively working as a digital currency exchange. And EBay CEO John Donahoe has openly flirted with Bitcoin, saying that digital currency “is going to play an important role going forward”, and that they would “have to integrate it into our wallets” in an interview with CNBC.
The fact that PayPal is involved in these negotiations is promising as well (EBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion USD back in 2002). PayPal has been no stranger to the Bitcoin world, with co-founder Peter Thiel expressing that Bitcoin has the power to change the world. While they have been slow in adopting PayPal themselves, they’ve had little criticism of it.
Is Braintree embracing Bitcoin what Donahoe was talking about? Or is this only the first step in a grander picture for EBay involving Bitcoin?
EBay Subsidiary Braintree In Talks To Integrate Bitcoin
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