With the Cash App, users can now “give away” stocks and Bitcoin with their USD balance or a debit card – TechCrunch

There are already a number of ways to gift cryptocurrencies, but today Cash App will make this easier with a new feature that will be introduced in its peer-to-peer payments app. The app, owned by Block (the company formerly known as Square), will now allow users in the US to send bitcoin as well as traditional stocks as gifts to other US cash app users.

While services like Stockpile and Coinbase allow users to give away stocks and cryptocurrencies, respectively, Cash App notes that this is the first time that such features are offered in a peer-to-peer payment app.

The feature builds on the previous functionality of the Cash app, which allows users to send bitcoins for free to any $ Cashtag in the app. The difference to this new “gift” feature is that users can now send Bitcoin with their Cash App USD balance or their debit card, not just with their existing Bitcoin balance. This means that users in the Cash app mobile app do not need to have any bitcoins or stocks to send them as a gift.

Credit: Cash app

For this feature to work, users send the fiat value of the stock or bitcoin from either their Cash App balance or an associated debit card, the company explains. While the previous function of sending Bitcoin was accessed from the “Invest” tab, the new function is launched from the “Payment” tab of the app.

The recipient then receives the market value of the asset at the time the gift was accepted. But if you’d rather not accept the stock or the Bitcoin “gift”, you can choose to receive the gift in USD instead.

Of course, the launch comes just in time for Cash App to benefit from Christmas gifts and could be a simple last minute gift. But the company notes that now users can also choose to split bills and repay friends by sending them stocks or bitcoin, not just cash.

Perhaps more importantly, the feature can serve as a way for existing users to encourage newcomers to invest, starting out with stock ownership or Bitcoin through the Cash app, as opposed to a competitor’s app.

Credit: Cash app

Cash App isn’t the only peer-to-peer app that has expanded into the investment or crypto market – its top rivals PayPal and Venmo – also both offer the ability to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies.

Additionally, this year Venmo added the ability for credit card users to purchase cryptocurrency with their cashback as another means of getting users to invest through its app. It had positioned the feature as a way for newbies to enter the market without having to worry about buying cryptocurrencies.

Similarly, Cash App’s gift feature could help attract other new investors who might not necessarily have looked for Bitcoin investments themselves but were invited to do so by a friend or family member.

The new feature launches today for Cash App users in the United States