Venmo Me Some Bitcoin: Crypto Transfers Open Up On Venmo Platform

It was another great week for mainstream adoption, as Paypal's (PYPL) Venmo and Robinhood (HOOD) both took major moves to make crypto more accessible to the wider public.

Venmo Crypto Transfers

It was about a year ago when PayPal first enabled users to transfer crypto between its platform and other wallets. Now, the company is allowing Venmo users to do the same.

Under the new plan, Venmo’s ~60 million users can now send crypto between Venmo, PayPal, and external wallets and exchanges.

Basically, it is now as easy to transfer crypto as it is to send somebody a Venmo.

Find a friend by searching for their name or by using a barcode (or now, wallet address), select the amount you want to send, and boom – the money is on its way.

Now, there are some limitations, of course.

For starters, you need to have crypto in your Venmo account in order to start the transferring process. Although it would be pretty neat, users won’t be able send anyone BTC with the USD from your bank or what’s already stashed away in your Venmo balance. While you can easily purchase crypto now on the platform (a feature that the company launched in 2021), your Venmo account still needs to be holding crypto in the first place before you transfer anything.

Moreover, for the time being, users will only be able to transfer what you can purchase on the platform – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Bitcoin Cash. Venmo users also must verify their identity in order to transfer or receive crypto and, lastly, the service remains unavailable for those in Hawaii and New York.

Robinhood Connect

Robinhood is furthering its crypto ambitions with the release of fiat on-ramp Robinhood Connect. Robinhood Connect allows developers to embed the feature directly into their protocol, enabling users to fund a web3 wallet without having to exit the protocol or open a new window to access their Robinhood Crypto accounts.

In other words, developers now benefit from being able to quickly embed the feature directly into their dApps and customers, on the other hand, are now able to bypass the additional (often annoying) login and transferring steps. All in all, integrations like Connect make it a lot easier for ordinary people to move money from the fiat world to the crypto-verse.

In addition to Connect, Robinhood is also beefing up its Crypto platform with:

• A crypto home tab

• Charts equipped with advanced trading tools and indicators

• Stop orders and stop limit orders

• Price alerts

• An educational “learn and earn” program

Because of its status as one of the world’s most popular trading platforms with over 12 million monthly active users (many of them on the younger side), any move by Robinhood into crypto is a welcoming sight.

On A Long Enough Timeline, Crypto Wins

As we’ve said before, during the bear market, it’s easy to get lost in the bad news. Whether it’s the regulators, a hack, a fraud, or just prices going down, the hits seem never-ending.

But, when you zoom out, the progress crypto is making becomes apparent. Countries are mining bitcoin. Mastercard is building a crypto credential standard. Visa is hiring engineers for an “ambitious” crypto product roadmap. An investment firm worth $1.4 trillion is starting a tokenized mutual fund on Polygon.

At the end of the day, when you feel like you’re about to be overwhelmed by the bad news, remember: mainstream adoption is coming, and long-term investors are in a position to reap its rewards.