175 - 400M PayPal Users to Crypto with Jose Fernandez da Ponte

Can we go Bankless using PayPal? We brought on Jose Fernandez da Ponte, the Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies at PayPal and Venmo to help us answer that question. Jose is responsible for driving PayPal’s efforts to bring the utility of crypto-assets and crypto-networks to their hundreds of millions of global consumers.

He also knows a thing or two about how the banking system works and how to fix it. And we also got the SVP of PayPal to say, “DeFi Mullet,” not once, but three times.

*PayPal currently offers crypto services only in the U.S., U.K., and Luxembourg. Venmo is available in the US only.

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✨ DEBRIEF | Unpacking the episode:
https://www.bankless.com/debrief-jose-paypal

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In today’s episode, we cover:

1) What PayPal sees in crypto
2) What PayPal’s 400M accounts can do with crypto today
3) How we get to $1T in stablecoins
4) What’s the role of CDBCs in a world of highly successful stablecoins? Can CDBCs and crypto co-exist?
5) Jose’s contrarian view on crypto regulatory environment in the U.S. and why he sees it as a “glass half full”

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Intro
7:55 What a PayPal Dollar Is
11:21 PayPal & Venmo Crypto
16:29 The Crypto Strategy
22:59 DeFi Mullet
27:33 Service Providers
31:24 Is Crypto Useless?
32:30 PayPal’s Crypto Back-End
34:40 How Hard Was PayPal’s Crypto Integration?
36:35 Path to $1T In Stablecoins
40:31 Payments
44:36 Gaming
46:46 Network Integration
49:47 DeFi on PayPal’s Radar?
56:38 What’s Broken About U.S. Banking?
1:01:51 Settlement in the U.S.
1:06:32 Best Digital Cash Society
1:13:10 Stablecoins in the U.S.
1:16:25 Crypto Regulation
1:20:44 Making Crypto More Useable
1:23:30 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES:

Jose Fernandez da Ponte
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-fernandez-da-ponte-a46ba81/

Payments and Evolution of Stablecoins Paper
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4425922

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Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures