Crypto Currents: PayPal partners with OpenAI for payments

Shares of PayPal are higher after the payments giant announced a significant partnership to integrate its wallet and merchant network directly into OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Elsewhere, Trump Media is partnering with Crypto.com to launch prediction markets on Truth Social. bitcoin miners Hut 8 and Core Scientific received analyst upgrades for their pivots into AI infrastructure. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with “Crypto Currents,” daily from The Fly. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio, Also, subscribe to our YouTube channel for the Crypto Fly By weekly recap.

PAYPAL PARTNERS WITH OPENAI FOR CHATGPT PAYMENTS: Shares of PayPal (PYPL) jumped 15% in pre-market trading Tuesday on the back of strong Q3 results and a major partnership with OpenAI. The payments firm posted $8.4B in revenue, up 7% vs. last year, beating street estimates and prompting the company to raise its full-year guidance.

PayPal also announced will be the first payment wallet integrated into ChatGPT. The deal leverages the Agentic Commerce Protocol to enable ChatGPT users to checkout instantly with PayPal, including bank, balance, crypto, and card options, while maintaining buyer protections, according to the press release. Beginning in 2026, tens of millions of merchants on PayPal’s network will have their product catalogs discoverable directly within ChatGPT. Users can now “go from chat to checkout in just a few taps”, according to PayPal CEO Alex Chriss. The company also intends to scale access to ChatGPT Enterprise to its more than 24,000 employees.

TRUMP MEDIA TAPS CRYPTO.COM FOR PREDICTION MARKETS: Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), has entered into an exclusive agreement with Crypto.com to launch prediction markets directly inside the social media app. “Truth Predict” will allow users to bet on real-life events, such as U.S. elections, Federal Reserve actions, and sports results, through Crypto.com’s CFTC-registered derivatives exchange. That would make Truth Social the first social platform with native prediction markets. Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said the move aims to turn “free speech into actionable foresight”. Users will be able to convert “Truth gems,” earned through platform interaction, into cronos (CRO-USD) token to use on prediction contracts. The partnership follows a recent announcement of a SPAC merger involving DJT, Crypto.com, and Yorkville Acquisition Corp (MCGA) to create a dedicated CRO digital asset treasury. Shares of DJT rose over 4% in premarket trading on the news.

MINERS PIVOT TO AI, GARNER UPGRADES: Bitcoin (BTC-USD) miners surged after their strategic changes toward artificial intelligence were rewarded with strong analyst upgrades. Benchmark more than doubled its price target on Hut 8 (HUT) to $78 from $36, while maintaining a buy rating. According to CoinDesk, the analyst reframed the company from a simple bitcoin miner into a broader energy infrastructure provider positioned to take advantage of AI and high-performance computing demand. Meanwhile, (CORZ) to buy from neutral with a new $25 price target. The bank cited accelerating demand for AI-ready data centers, noting that Core’s scale and increasing HPC revenue help offset traditional crypto-related risks.

CORPORATE TREASURIES AND ANALYST MOVES: On the corporate treasury front, Coinbase (COIN) is putting its $10B in cash on hand to work in an aggressive M&A strategy. As reported by Cointelegraph, the company wants to be an “everything exchange”, a sentiment underscored by a reported $2.9B acquisition of derivatives platform Deribit and its $375M purchase of Echo.

Meanwhile, corporate treasury strategies remain a key focus:

• Strive (ASST) added 72.3 bitcoin worth approximately $8.26M using proceeds from warrant exercises, as shown in an SEC filing.
• Prenetics Global (PRE) raised $48 million in an equity round from crypto-focused investors, including Kraken and Exodus (EXOD), to accelerate its own bitcoin treasury strategy.
• Live Bitcoin News says an analyst believes S&P Global’s recent ‘B-‘ credit rating for Strategy (MSTR) demonstrates a misunderstanding of traditional models when it comes to the value of bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset.

BLACKROCK CEO ON ‘ASSETS OF FEAR’: BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink has described crypto and gold as “assets of fear” that investors hold due to fears of currency debasement, according to remarks he made at a conference in Saudi Arabia. Cointelegraph reports he also commented on tokenization as one of the big trends. According to him, one of the biggest questions he receives from central banks is what place tokenization will have in the financial system.

Elsewhere in bank analysis, Citigroup (C) said in a report that crypto’s correlation with U.S. equities and gold is tightening again, as market volatility picks up. CoinDesk reported the analysts from the bank as saying that equities remain the main macro force driving crypto movements.

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin was trading at $114,756.23, while ether was trading at $4,098.94, according to price data from CoinDesk.