Ecommerce giant eBay has confirmed that it is open to considering accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of payment on its platform. The company will also look to enter the NFTs (non-fungible tokens) space that has taken the world by storm this year.

eBay CEO Jamie Iannone divulged these plans when he was interviewed by CNBC. The company also released a statement to Reuters to confirm this:  “We are always looking at the most relevant forms of payment and will continue to assess that going forward. We have no immediate plans, but it (cryptocurrency) is something we are keeping an eye on.”

eBay has long reined in on customers using its platform to perform bitcoin or NFT-related sales. But this change of stance will be a welcomed move for the entire crypto community. eBay was one of the first-ever online marketplaces and continues to be one of the most popular to date. It is however not the first time that eBay is actively engaged in crypto. The company was one of the founder members of the Facebook Libra project before it exited in late 2019 citing political pressures. At the time of the exit, the company mentioned that they respect Libra Association’s vision, but they will seek to create a ‘managed payments experience’ for its customers.

For eBay, the NFT space is particularly attractive because the platform has long been a popular place for collectables. Iannone even alluded to this in his interview: “We’re exploring opportunities on how we can enable it (NFTs) on eBay in an easy way. Everything that’s collectable has been on eBay for decades and will continue to be for the next few decades.”

eBay will be joining major American companies that have already started accepting cryptocurrency as a mode of payment. Of particular relevance is PayPal, the online payments platform that was once owned by eBay. PayPal recently allowed U.S. users to buy and sell crypto within its platform. But it has deepened its crypto integration in 2021 by allowing its users to ‘check out with crypto’ at selected merchants.

PayPal has also allowed crypto purchases at Venmo, its subsidiary payment app that focuses on millennials. Even after the 2015 divestiture, PayPal is still a major payment method utilized by millions of users on eBay.

The recent adoption of cryptocurrency by the two major American companies is only adding to the positive sounds in crypto land. Do you care to listen?