Braintree, the eBay subsidiary that runs a payment system used by popular mobile apps, plans to announce that its customers can start accepting bitcoin, according to two sources.
eBay Payments Unit Braintree to Let Merchants Accept Bitcoin
The move is not expected to extend to PayPal or eBay, at least for now.
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.
The move would allow websites and apps that run payments through Braintree (part of eBay’s PayPal) to start accepting bitcoin as a payment method, these people said. Braintree’s most popular customers include Uber, Airbnb and HotelTonight. It’s not clear which, if any, of these customers will choose to accept the digital currency.
The move is not expected to extend to PayPal or eBay, at least for now. One source said Braintree is working with bitcoin company Coinbase to process the bitcoin payments.
Braintree is expected to announce the news in the near future — perhaps as early as today. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Braintree was in talks with bitcoin companies to accept the digital currency.
A bitcoin is generated when computers running specialized software solve complex mathematical equations. It has gained popularity over the past year as speculators have bought the currency with the hope that its value will increase over time. Some well-known companies, including Dell and Overstock.com, have also started to accept bitcoin as a payment method. Bitcoin is currently valued at about $476, after soaring above $1100 late last year.
Update 4:14 pm ET: Braintree confirmed the news in a blog post published on Monday afternoon.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
