From the Publisher:  This interest in bitcoin on the part of Paypal and other may be resulting from the surge in utilization of the digital currency by Chinese millenials.   

"PayPal is slowly dipping its toes in the bitcoin waters.

The company has partnered with Coinbase, a virtual currency wallet and exchange, so Coinbase users can sell bitcoin and cash out to their PayPal accounts. Buying bitcoin isn’t possible yet, but the small integration is a noteworthy first step.

PayPal did not immediately respond to Quartz’s request for comment.

While bitcoin and its underlying technology, blockchain, has caught Wall Street’s attention, consumer tech giants have largely stayed away from the technology until now. Recently, Quartz reported that Airbnb “acquihired” a bitcoin company and its engineers. Other tech giants, like IBM and Microsoft, have been exploring blockchain tech more closely. IBM developed open source code that’s being used in the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger consortium. Microsoft has been integrating blockchain services into its Azure cloud platform."

Full Article at Quartz