PayPal Holdings Inc. is now offering cryptocurrency services to all eligible account holders in the U.S. after announcing a soft launch of the service Oct. 21.

The service allows users to buy, hold and sell for bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin within their existing PayPal accounts. Using the service is as simple as account holders logging into their accounts and following on-screen instructions.

PayPal is not offering the service for free and at not particularly appealing rates either, reminiscent of its current transaction charges for money transfers. PayPal is charging a fee of 50 cents on transactions of up to $24.99; a 2.3% fee on transactions between $25 and $100; a 2% fee on transactions between $100.01 and $200; 1.8% on $200.01 to $1,000; and 1.5% on any transaction over $1,000.01.

Compared with existing cryptocurrency exchanges, the fees are arguably excessive. The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance charges 0.1% on bitcoin trades for base users with discounts on that rate available for regular traders. Among U.S. companies, Kraken charges between 0.16% and 0.26% on a “maker-and-taker” or sender-and-receiver basis, with discounts available on the rate at higher volumes. Coinbase Inc. charges a maximum of 1.49%.

The move to make PayPal’s cryptocurrency services available to all eligible U.S. account holders is said to have been driven by high demand. Along with the general availability of the service, PayPal also increased the weekly cryptocurrency purchase limit from $10,000 to $20,000 per week. Plans to bring cryptocurrency support to Venmo and PayPal international customers in the first half remained unchanged.

PayPal offering support for cryptocurrency is a huge boost for the overall sector given that PayPal has 286 million active users as of October, with around 60% of Americans making use of its services. That said, PayPal does not operate as a charity and it has clearly decided to enter the market since it sees it as a business opportunity.

Square Inc., a competitor of sorts to PayPal, at least on merchant payments, reported record revenue in its third quarter Nov. 5, driven by its support for cryptocurrency. Bitcoin trading alone accounted for $1.635 billion of Square’s $3.03 billion in the quarter, driving the company’s share price to record highs. PayPal  clearly wants a slice of the action.

Photo: PayPal