

Now, millions of Venmo users can easily buy and sell cryptocurrency and, just like any other social media platform, add the proof to their Venmo feed. Part of Venmo's shtick is that it lets you spy on other people's transactions and, if you want, share your own. But "this is probably one of the safest options." Will these transactions show up on Venmo's public feed? Wading into the world of cryptocurrency comes with "inherent risk," she says.

The platform that PayPal has partnered with to make these Venmo transactions possible, Paxos, is highly regulated, according to Halaburda. Another exchange, Quadriga, turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. Gox was once the largest Bitcoin trading exchange in the world before it crashed in 2014 and its customers lost access to hundreds of millions of dollars. Cryptocurrency holders have been burned in the past thanks to unregulated exchanges. It's more expensive for hackers to attack the underlying blockchain technology of these types of cryptocurrencies, making them more secure. The four cryptocurrencies available to Venmo users are among the safest, says Hanna Halaburda, an associate professor at NYU Stern School of Business. But if you've been looking for a way to dip your toes, this isn't the worst place to start. Is it safe to buy and sell cryptocurrency on Venmo?Ĭryptocurrency is risky since it isn't regulated like a traditional asset and its price is volatile. There may be other fees associated with trading.

residents 18+ and subject to account approval. If you haven’t yet bought into the crypto mania, it just got a lot easier to do so. Cash App, another popular peer-to-peer digital payment service, also allows users to buy and sell bitcoin. Venmo is owned by PayPal, which has allowed people to buy and sell the four cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash - through its main platform since late last year, and started letting customers pay millions of online merchants with those cryptos last month. Meanwhile, the price of Dogecoin, a Bitcoin spinoff that started as a joke, has skyrocketed this month. Just last week, Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., made its public debut, which many saw as a vote of confidence for digital currencies as a whole. The move makes "cryptos" accessible to Venmo's more than 70 million customers at a time when digital assets are quickly becoming more mainstream. On Tuesday, the mobile payment application began allowing users to buy, hold and sell four types of cryptocurrency with a minimum spending limit of just $1. On Tuesday, Bitcoin was trading at around $55,600 and Ethereum at approximately $2,260.You can now buy and sell bitcoin on Venmo as easily as you can split a bar tab with friends. Meanwhile, some of the most popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum have skyrocketed in value over the past calendar year. It also comes a few weeks after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his electric vehicle company was now accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment, providing a major boost to the cryptocurrency's push for widespread acceptance. Venmo's announcement comes just weeks after its parent company, PayPal, announced that it was allowing customers to check out online using cryptocurrencies. It also found that some 20% of those people started this during the pandemic. Venmo said that within its 2020 customer research, it found that more than 30% of Venmo customers have already started purchasing crypto or equities. Users can also choose to "share their crypto journey" with their friends on the Venmo feed, the company said. In addition to conducting business with digital currencies, the Venmo feature will also provide users with cryptocurrency trends as well as educational videos and other resources. "Our goal is to provide our customers with an easy-to-use platform that simplifies the process of buying and selling cryptocurrencies and demystifies some of the common questions and misconceptions that consumers may have," Esch added in a statement. The company said users can start buying cryptocurrencies with as little as $1.ĭarrell Esch, the company's senior vice president and general manager, said the feature "is a new way for the Venmo community to start exploring the world of crypto, within the Venmo environment they trust and rely on as a key component of their everyday financial lives." The cryptocurrency offerings include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. The feature, rolling out starting Tuesday, will be available to the company's 70 million customers within the next few weeks. Venmo announced Tuesday that it will let users buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency directly in its app as digital currency goes more mainstream.
