Australian exchange Independent Reserve partners with PayPal

Author: TOM MITCHELHILL, COINTELEGRAPH; Compiler: Songxue, Jinse Finance

** The chief executive of Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve said the company has turned to payments giant PayPal to hedge against increasingly stringent restrictions on payments by banks on cryptocurrency exchanges. **

The exchange has partnered with PayPal to enable an on-ramp enabling **Independent Reserve customers to fund their cryptocurrency accounts with fiat currency directly from their PayPal wallets, as well as use PayPal to withdraw funds from cryptocurrency exchanges. **

Independent Reserve CEO Adrian Przelozny said in an interview that the new partnership provides an additional option for Australian cryptocurrency investors and that if “other banks do decide to work with Industry alliances” can also mitigate future risks.

As of today, at least five of Australia’s major banking institutions — Bendigo Bank, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac and ANZ — are open to anyone wishing to deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies from digital asset exchanges. The client enforces a series of restrictions.

Commonwealth Bank, one of the strictest banks in Australia, imposes a $10,000 monthly limit on all deposits to cryptocurrency exchanges. Other restrictions include blocking certain "high-risk" payments and removing instant deposits from cryptocurrency exchanges.

Przelozny noted that this is the first example of PayPal partnering with a cryptocurrency exchange in the Asia-Pacific region and praised the payments company for choosing to enter the cryptocurrency space on a positive note.

“It’s great to see a company like PayPal bucking the trend and seeing an opportunity in the cryptocurrency industry, as opposed to everything other banks are doing, they only see the industry as a risk,” he said.

Funds sent to exchanges via PayPal or credit cards have a daily deposit limit of $5,000, which is much looser than limits imposed by some major banks, Przelozny noted.

In a statement, PayPal Australia managing director Peter Cowan said the ** partnership will help reduce the constraints and complexity of moving funds between digital asset exchanges for Australian cryptocurrency investors. **

"By integrating the PayPal wallet for deposits and the PayPal platform for card processing, Independent Reserve and Bitcoin.com.au are making it easier for investors to access cryptocurrencies while allowing real-time withdrawals to PayPal wallets."

Cowan also offered his own bullish remarks on digital currencies.

“At PayPal, we believe money will go digital — it’s only a matter of when not if it will happen. Digital currencies have the potential to drive fintech innovation and continually improve economic opportunity and financial inclusion. "

On August 7, PayPal announced the launch of its own dollar-pegged stablecoin, PYUSD.