PayPal’s recent entry into the crypto market is driving the current Bitcoin rally, according to Pantera Capital, a well-established cryptocurrency investment firm.
In an investor newsletter, the company compared the ongoing bull run to the last time BTC rose above $18,000, some three years ago.
“Previously the ways to acquire Bitcoin were pretty one dimensional,” the letter notes. It highlights how payments giant PayPal has now made it easier for millions of its customers to become potential Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, and Litecoin owners.
Indeed, all eligible PayPal account users in the U.S. can now buy, store, and sell those cryptocurrencies – much sooner than the PayPal itself expected, due to the growing customer interest. Furthermore, the firm also doubled its weekly crypto purchase limit from an initial $10,000 to $20,000.
“BOOM! The consequences are already obvious,” Dan Pantera, chief executive and founder of the fund, wrote in the November newsletter. “When PayPal went live, volumes started detonating.”
Pantera voiced the claim that PayPal users are already buying out nearly 70% of the newly supplied Bitcoins. The Bitcoin network issues the newly mined coins on a fixed and predetermined schedule basis. Currently, only 6.25 new Bitcoins are mined per 10 minutes, following the “halving” earlier this year. An amount that will continually decrease every four years until all the 21 million Bitcoins enter market circulation.
