PayPal launches PayPal Links, which lets users create personalized, one-time links to send money to or request payment from other PayPal users, including crypto
ZDNET's key takeaways — PayPal Links lets you send and request money with other PayPal users.
Context & Ripple Effects
PayPal previously introduced a personalized URL for payment requests through PayPal.Me, establishing a link-based payment identity inside its network. PayPal Links extends that model with one-time links, making the link itself a more bounded transaction entry point.
The launch also builds on PayPal’s earlier move to support crypto activity in its wallets and its planned third-party wallet transfers. It matters because the same person-to-person payment flow now spans conventional money requests and crypto transfers.
First-order effects
- PayPal users gain a personalized, one-time mechanism to initiate sending or requesting payments from other PayPal users, including crypto.
- Recipients remain within PayPal’s user network, while the one-time format gives senders and requesters a more transaction-specific alternative to a reusable payment URL.
Second-order effects
- The feature puts pressure on other wallet and peer-to-peer payment apps to match low-friction, shareable payment initiation while retaining account-level controls.
- Combining crypto with the same link flow can increase its visibility alongside standard transfers, rather than treating it as a separate wallet experience.
Third-order effects
- If adopted, one-time links could make payment initiation increasingly URL-based: identity, request details and transaction context travel in a shareable link rather than requiring users to search for one another in an app.
- The broader structural test is whether closed payment networks can make crypto transfers feel like a native extension of everyday wallet payments without weakening the safeguards that distinguish one-time requests from reusable payment identities.
The trend: Consumer payment platforms are converging on link-native, wallet-centered flows that fold new asset types into familiar peer-to-peer payment experiences.