PayPal / Curv 2021
PayPal acquired Curv for $200M on March 8, 2021.
- Target
- Curv
- Acquirer
- PayPal
- Deal value
- $200M
- Deal type
- Cash
- Announced
- March 8, 2021
- Sub-sector
- Crypto / Digital Assets
Transaction overview
- PayPal announced the acquisition of Curv on March 8, 2021, for a reported price of approximately $200 million.
- The deal closed on March 31, 2021, roughly three weeks after announcement.
- Consideration was structured as an all-cash transaction.
- Curv was an Israeli startup offering cloud-based, multi-party computation (MPC) custody infrastructure for digital assets.
- The company had raised around $30 million in venture funding before the acquisition.
- PayPal operates a global payments network with over 390 million active accounts as of early 2021.
- PayPal had launched consumer crypto buying and selling in the US in October 2020, months before the deal.
- Curv's technology was intended to support PayPal's expansion of institutional and consumer digital asset services.
Why it matters
- The deal was one of the first major acquisitions of an MPC-based crypto custody firm by a mainstream payments company.
- It signaled that large payments platforms were moving to build proprietary digital asset infrastructure rather than rely on third-party custodians.
Strategic rationale
PayPal buys Tel Aviv MPC-based digital asset custody platform to anchor its crypto custody and institutional infrastructure stack.
Deal terms & multiples
About Curv
Curv was a Tel Aviv-based digital asset security company founded in 2018. The company built a cloud-native custody platform using multi-party computation, a cryptographic technique that eliminates the need for a single private key. Its architecture was designed to allow institutions to move and secure digital assets without hardware security modules or seed phrases. Customers included financial institutions and crypto-native firms seeking to manage digital asset risk at scale.
- Founded
- 2018
- HQ
- Israel
- Prior funding
- ~$30 million; investors included Team8, Digital Currency Group, and Coinbase Ventures
- Key metric
- ~$30M raised in venture funding prior to acquisition
About PayPal NASDAQ: PYPL
PayPal Holdings is a San Jose-based digital payments company founded in 1998 and publicly traded on Nasdaq. The company processed roughly $936 billion in total payment volume in 2020 across its PayPal and Venmo platforms. PayPal began offering US consumers the ability to buy, sell, and hold select cryptocurrencies in October 2020. The Curv acquisition was part of a broader push to build out digital asset capabilities beyond the consumer wallet.
- Founded
- 1998
- Ticker
- NASDAQ: PYPL
Frequently asked questions
How much did PayPal pay for Curv?
PayPal paid approximately $200 million in cash. The figure was widely reported but not officially confirmed by PayPal in its public filings.
What does Curv do?
Curv built a cloud-based digital asset custody platform using multi-party computation, removing the need for hardware wallets or single private keys. Its clients were primarily institutional.
Why did PayPal acquire Curv?
PayPal wanted proprietary custody infrastructure to support its crypto services, which it had launched for US consumers in October 2020. Curv's MPC technology offered an alternative to outsourcing custody to third parties.
When did the PayPal-Curv deal close?
The deal closed on March 31, 2021, approximately three weeks after the March 8 announcement.
Where is Curv headquartered?
Curv was headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, with an office in New York.
Who invested in Curv before the PayPal acquisition?
Curv's backers included Team8, Digital Currency Group, and Coinbase Ventures. The company raised roughly $30 million in total before the sale.
Sources
- newsroom.paypal-corp.com /2021-03-08-PayPal-Acquires-Curv