Dive Brief:

• PayPal announced its acquisition of Israeli digital asset company Curv on Monday for an undisclosed amount. In a press release, the payments company said its goal in the acquisition is to "accelerate and expand its initiatives to support cryptocurrencies and digital assets."
• "The acquisition of Curv is part of our effort to invest in the talent and technology to realize our vision for a more inclusive financial system," said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, vice president and general manager of blockchain, crypto and digital currencies at PayPal. 
• Curv, a cloud-based infrastructure company founded in 2018, is an enterprise-level operation offering "protection, instant availability and total autonomy over digital assets."

Dive Insight:

PayPal had been in talks to acquire Curv for some time, according to various media outlets. The acquisition continues building on the company's strategy following its recent foray into expanding its digital wallet capabilities to be able to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency. PayPal plans to add those capabilities to its peer-to-peer subsidiary Venmo wallet.

"PayPal, with 300 million users, can be the bridge from traditional payments to cryptocurrencies by telling users, 'Here's an easy way to get into cryptocurrency; we can onboard you,'" Douglas Borthwick, chief marketing officer at blockchain trading platform INX Ltd., told American Banker last year.

Users won't be able to transfer coins in and out of accounts and can only hold cryptocurrencies they bought on PayPal, the company said, according to Bloomberg. 

PayPal's focus on digital wallet follows its other product, called Pay in 4, which lets consumers pay for purchases installments. Pay in 4 will compete with other buy-now-pay-later companies, including Afterpay, Affirm and Klarna.