However, over the course of the New York Blockchain week, their hopes were dashed. eBay flat out responded to inquiries last week, stating that cryptos aren’t accepted on its platform. Furthermore, it said accepting cryptos is not a part of its payments strategy.
What Happened?
Once it became clear that eBay still wasn’t ready to accept crypto, many speculated more.
$EBAY ebay rumors based on this image are totally misunderstood. It refers to the category titled ‘Virtual Currency’ that is already on the site and allows platform users to trade crypto. no need to speculate on price by accepting for payment when they furnish an exchange method pic.twitter.com/kAm26G7Ch8
— Chris (@ContractTraderT) May 13, 2019
Others speculated about what this means for Amazon.
Come to think of it. If @eBay is over here spreading rumors about accepting crypto. Maybe @Amazon really isn’t that far-fetched.
— Chaz Schmidt (@ChazSchmidt) May 13, 2019
eBay Finally Quashes Rumors
The speculation rumor mill ramped up due to some promotional adverts that were spotted at Consensus 2019 conference held in New York this week. CCN reported that the adverts were leaked on the Telegram channel @PatronsOfTheMoon.
CCN warned to be cautious about all this because eBay hadn’t confirmed any crypto-related plans. CCN pointed out that the adverts suggested that eBay was about to enter the cryptocurrency arena, which would be a major mainstream breakthrough.
Hopes Not Completely Dashed
While the company denies any crypto plans, the eBay marketplace has been widely linked to bitcoin payment gateway UTRUST. UTRUST hired former eBay and PayPal executive Sanja Kon as VP of Global Partnerships in 2018. So a partnership between UTRUST and eBay would be a logical conclusion, CCN reported.
In a statement at the time, UTRUST said:
“Sanja’s experience at PayPal and eBay makes her the perfect person to help UTRUST drive merchant adoption of our crypto-payments platform… We anticipate that she will be a key driver in elevating UTRUST’s brand in the crypto-commerce space and ultimately the future of online payments industry.”
This was posted before the eBay rumor was dispelled.
If this article is correct than this is huuuuuuuuuge for @UTRUST. Will @eBay use #Utrust for crypto payments in the near future?
So far it’s just a rumor but it could be true. Sanja has a background at PayPal and Ebay.#utk pic.twitter.com/lkyAnMDxmt
— Crypto Boss (@crypto_baas) May 13, 2019
CCN also reported that eBay could be eyeing the digital collectibles market, which has been made famous by Cryptokitties. The potential of digital collectibles was made real by Ethereum, for the first time offering a platform for truly unique, one-of-a-kind digital assets.
Then there’s PayPal. It’s reportedly pursuing blockchain and cryptocurrency projects, Yahoo Finance reports.
PayPal’s C-suite folks have been skeptical about cryptos. However, one of the members of the company’s board begs to differ. Last month, PayPal director Wences Casares said that bitcoin’s chances of succeeding exceed 50 percent, as earlier reported by CCN.