Just a few months after payments giant PayPal launched buying and selling features for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, user demand for digital assets on the platform has already exceeded the company's expectations "multiple-fold," revealed CEO Dan Schulman. Speaking to TIME Magazine, Schulman said that, "Demand on the crypto side has been multiple-fold to what we initially expected," adding that, "There's a lot of excitement." Schulman explained that cryptocurrencies are just a part of the overall trend of digitalization of everyday payments, accelerated by the coronavirus outbreak. Ten years from now, he argued, there will be a "tremendous" decline in the use of cash and credit cards. Instead, most financial operations will be conducted via smartphones and "superapps."

PayPal and Bitcoin. Image: Shutterstock In brief PayPal CEO Dan Schulman revealed that user demand for cryptocurrencies on the platform is even higher than anticipated. Schulman noted that the coronavirus pandemic has greatly accelerated the digitalization of payments across the globe. Just a few months after payments giant PayPal launched buying and selling features for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, user demand for digital assets on the platform has already exceeded the company's expectations "multiple-fold," revealed CEO Dan Schulman. Speaking to TIME Magazine, Schulman said that, "Demand on the crypto side has been multiple-fold to what we initially expected," adding that, "There's a lot of excitement." The top 5 crypto news & features in your inbox each day. Get Daily Digest for the best of Decrypt. News, original features and more. Schulman explained that cryptocurrencies are just a part of the overall trend of digitalization of everyday payments, accelerated by the coronavirus outbreak. Ten years from now, he argued, there will be a "tremendous" decline in the use of cash and credit cards. Instead, most financial operations will be conducted via smartphones and "superapps." The 'advent of digital currencies' "When all of those things start to happen, then central banks need to rethink monetary policy as well because you can't just issue more paper money into the system because people aren't using paper money," Schulman explained, noting that it would result in the "advent of digital currencies." He pointed out that today's financial systems are rapidly becoming obsolete due to their slow transaction speeds and high fees. In this light, companies need to think about modernizing their existing financial infrastructure to "do things more efficiently, with less cost, more inclusively, and add more utility into the system."