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Google Pay Partners With Cryptocurrency Exchanges To Accept Their Digital Cards

Another day, another massive company entering the cryptocurrency space. Google is making moves to boost up the profile of their Google Pay service, and, of course, crypto is in the mix. The company hired Arnold Goldberg, ex-Senior Vice President at PayPal, “to run its payments division.” That’s according to Bloomberg, who broke the story. 

“The move is part of a broader strategy to team up with a wider range of financial services, including cryptocurrencies, said Bill Ready, Google’s president of commerce. The business, known for the Google Pay system and mobile wallet, has largely avoided the crypto industry.”

Related Reading | Bitcoin Still Overtook Trump, VISA, PayPal, and Libra on Google Search in 2019

Until now, that is. The company is cautiously entering the cryptocurrency space and NewsBTC is here to tell you what you should know about it.

Google’s Many Failures

The company’s financial division hasn’t been the most successful. Their Google Pay service is far behind its competitors, and facing a crowded space with many players trying to get ahead. Recently, Alphabet Inc. partnered with 11 banks for an initiative called Plex, and canceled everything at the last second. “We’re not a bank — we have no intention of being a bank,” said the company’s president of commerce Bill Ready in a recent interview.

On the other hand, the company has a lot going for it: 

“Google does have enormous consumer reach and a huge balance sheet. The technology giant takes no fees on transactions with its mobile wallet, and Ready said there are no plans to change that.”

Alphabet Inc. price chart on Nasdaq | Source: TradingView.com
What Will The Company’s Crypto Play Consist Of?

Let’s be clear about this, the technology giant is only testing the waters. They haven’t announced anything crazy, nor are they developing technology themselves. Still, it’s a great improvement from their “largely avoided the crypto industry” policy. What are they doing, exactly?

“Google has partnered with companies, including Coinbase Global Inc. and BitPay Inc., to store crypto assets in digital cards, while still having users pay in traditional currencies. Ready said Google is looking to do more of these partnership, though the company still isn’t accepting crypto for transactions.”

Since that’s a little vague, Yahoo! Finance elaborates on the matter:

“Late last year crypto platform Bakkt said its virtual Visa debit card would be available for use on Google Pay online and in stores. Bakkt’s Google Pay support follows in the footsteps of Coinbase, which rolled out support for Apple Pay and Google Pay for its Coinbase Cards earlier this year. Google is also working with Bitpay and Gemini to support their crypto cards, meaning that people who use these cards can add them to Google Pay.”

To further emphasize the lightness of the company’s crypto play, Bill Ready told Bloomberg:

“Crypto is something we pay a lot of attention to. As user demand and merchant demand evolves, we’ll evolve with it.”

How Did The Market React To Google ‘s Announcement?

As soon as the article went live and the news started spreading through the Internet, both Bitcoin and Ethereum’s prices spiked for a little while. Then, as people read exactly what Google announced, the excitement wore off. The two leading cryptocurrencies have been trading horizontally, lightly trending downwards for a while. And this announcement wasn’t strong enough to change that.

Related Reading | Coinbase Adds Option To Buy Crypto With Apple Pay, Google Pay To Follow

Maybe it should’ve been, though.

Featured Image by PhotoMIX-Company on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView

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Coinbase Adds Option To Buy Crypto With Apple Pay, Google Pay To Follow

Crypto continues to see tremendous growth these past weeks. Prices of coins have soared across the board as sentiments continue to skew in the positive. Investors seem to be pouring back into the market, with the market showing patterns that indicate current buy pressure trends are higher than sell pressures. Accumulation patterns continue to show that investors are hoarding their coins instead of selling, as exchange reserves continue to plummet across the board.

More good news continues to rock the market as crypto prices remain in an uptrend. Coinbase recently announced that its users can now buy coins on the platform using Apple Pay. This method was previously unavailable to customers. But Coinbase had, in June, earlier said that users were now able to use their Coinbase crypto card on Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Related Reading | Wells Fargo Now Offers Cryptocurrency Investment To Clients

This was a welcome development as it opened up new ways that crypto enthusiasts could use their crypto cards out in the world. But there still was no option to use Apple Pay to buy crypto, until now.

Coinbase Adding More Payment Options

The move by Coinbase is part of its efforts to add more safe and secure ways for its users to buy crypto. Adding payment options like Apple Pay ensures that users do not have to go through long processes just to get crypto-assets. And what’s more, Apple Pay remains one of the most trusted digital wallets presently.

Coinbase uses the information that is already linked to users’ Apple Pay to facilitate crypto purchases. This means that if a debit card is already added to a user’s Apple Pay wallet, then they can pay for crypto purchases using an Apple Pay option that will appear on Coinbase. The process works with any Apple Pay-enabled iOS device or through a Safari web browser.

Related Reading | Nigerians Move Almost $40 Million In P2P Bitcoin Trading In A Month

In addition to this comes the ability for users to get instant cashouts of up to $100,000 on a single transaction. Coinbase has made this option available for users on the platform on a 24-7 basis, which means that users will always have access to cashouts, and this process is instant. While bypassing high, uncapped fees that are charged to customers when using ACH to cash out, and also reduces the length of time required for a withdrawal to go through.

More Ways To Buy Crypto

In addition to Apple Pay, Coinbase also announced plans to add in the option for users to be able to buy crypto using Google Pay later in the year. The feature is set to roll out in the Fall, which would open up over 150 million people in over 40 countries to the option of seamlessly buying crypto.

Related Reading | Here’s What Happens To All Of The Crypto Assets The IRS Seizes

These additions would add to their existing list of ways their users could already purchase cryptocurrencies. With U.S. customers being able to purchase crypto using debit cards, wire transfers, or ACH, or just using funds currently available in their Coinbase USD wallets.

Coinbase continues to work on more ways to provide users access to buy crypto. Providing global access continues to remain a key focus, and on this note, Coinbase now allows users to purchase crypto using Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards in over 20 countries presently. And the crypto exchange plans to add more countries to this list as time goes on.

Total market cap recovers | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on TradingView.com

More methods of purchase are expected to be announced by the crypto giant which had gone public earlier this year. Just as well, the crypto market rages on as the total crypto market cap now sits at over $1.7 trillion presently. Inching close to the $2 trillion mark.

Featured image from Fintechs.fi, chart from TradingView.com