PayPal now lets you buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and LiteCoin. CashApp lets you buy Bitcoin (and stock!) And both allow you to purchase fractional shares (Paypal allows you to buy fractional shares of any of the cryptocurrencies; Cash App lets you buy fractional shares of both Bitcoin, and stocks). By fractional shares we mean that you choose how much you want to spend, and that’s how much stock you get. For example, as you can see from the screenshot below, you can buy as little as $10 worth of Apple stock.
Fractional Share of Apple Stock Through Cash App
As Paypal explains, “You can buy four different cryptos on PayPal: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. You can also sell the crypto you buy on PayPal or hold it in your account.” When you choose to sell the cryptocurrency that you bought through Paypal, the proceeds will be immediately credited directly to your Paypal account.
What you can’t do with Paypal is use your cryptocurrency to send money or pay for something directly, nor can others pay you in crypto. That said, Paypal has just announced that in the coming months they are rolling out a system so that you will be able to pay a merchant “with crypto” – we put it in quotes because really what will happen is that you will be triggering the immediate sale of enough crypto to cover the cash equivalent of what you need to pay the merchant, which will immediately go into your Paypal cash account and out to the merchant, but all of that is seamless and invisible to you, so to you it feels like you are paying with your crypto.
With Cash App you can only buy Bitcoin (not Ethereum or any of the others, although, again, you can also buy fractional shares of stock through Cash App). The nice thing about doing it through Cash App is that you can pay others with Bitcoin (“You can instantly send bitcoin to any $Cashtag for free, right from Cash App.”) and they offer a free (free!) Visa debit card which is connected to your Cash App account, and with which you can pay for things with your Cash App cash balance, including the proceeds from the sale of Bitcoin and there are rewards – in Bitcoin – available when you use your Cash App card!
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Cash App Visa Debit Card Bitcoin Boost
Buying Bitcoin through either Paypal or Cashapp couldn’t be easier: with Paypal you just log into your Paypal account, and then click on the ‘Crypto’ button in the upper right-hand corner, next to the ‘Send’ and ‘Request’ buttons.
With Cash App you click on the little stocks-and-crypto emblem icon at the bottom of the screen.
Of course, Bitcoin is not without its risks, just like any other investment. In fact, when purchasing it on Paypal they remind you “Remember, the value of crypto can be volatile, and the value of your crypto purchases can significantly decrease. Make sure buying crypto is right for your financial situation. Since crypto purchases and sales aren’t reversible, do your research and make decisions carefully.” Nor is the crypto market regulated (unlike the stock market), so be sure that you know what you are doing, and that you never invest money that you can’t afford to have diminished or even lose.
All that said, if you are looking to dabble in cryptocurrencies, this is a relatively pain-free, and very easy, way to do it.
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