We're learning of this only because PayPal's required quarterly report has now been filed with the SEC, from there you'll have to go 16 pages in before it's even mentioned.

It's rare for a company spend over $300+ million on anything without letting the public/and press know about it - but when PayPal decided to load up on crypto they clearly also decided it would be smarter to stay quiet while doing it.

Why So Secretive?

My guess is; they didn't want prices to go higher... yet. 

They did their buying over a 3 month period, and if news got out that the worlds biggest online finance company was spending so much on crypto, other companies may follow. It doesn't help them if prices go up while they're still buying.

While the report does not give the number of Bitcoins PayPal holds, it does give their total USD value of $499 million. This is based on Bitcoin's total value at the end of March, so doing the math and assuming they were paying slightly under market value by doing large OTC trades, we're estimating PayPal holds somewhere around 17,500 BTC.

They also spent another $110 million on Ethereum, and another $19 million on all other cryptocurrencies.

So Far in 2023 PayPal's Added Another $339 Million In Crypto - Bringing Total Near $1B...

PayPal began 2023 already owning over $600 million worth of cryptocurrency, but after the last 3 months of aggressive buying, they're almost able to join the small group of companies and individuals holding over a billion worth of crypto.

However, breaking $1 billion total is now within reach, and can be done without PayPal having to buy more. 

We estimate Bitcoin trading around $35k and ETH holding over $2k would be enough to put PayPal's total into the 10-digits.

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Author: Ross Davis
Silicon Valley Newsroom
GCP | Breaking Crypto News