(Reuters) -PayPal Holdings announced on Wednesday it is enabling U.S. merchants to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency from their business accounts.

Cryptocurrency has moved from being a nascent asset class towards greater market acceptance after bitcoin exchange traded funds were approved for listing by the U.S. SEC earlier in the year.

"Business owners have increasingly expressed a desire for the same cryptocurrency capabilities available to consumers," said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currencies at PayPal.

PayPal joined the cryptocurrency market in 2020, allowing customers to buy, sell and hold bitcoin and other virtual coins using the digital payments company's online wallets.

The company became the first major financial technology firm to embrace digital currencies for payments and transfers when it launched its dollar-backed stablecoin in August 2023.

Stablecoins are crypto tokens whose monetary value is pegged to a stable asset to protect potential investors from wild swings in prices.

San Jose, California-based PayPal is also enabling U.S. merchants to transfer cryptocurrency on chain externally to third party eligible wallets.

However, the services would not be available for business accounts in New York State at launch, the company said on its website.

Shares of the company have gained nearly 26% so far this year.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)