Did you also make a mistake? PayPal plans to acquire cryptocurrency custodian Curv, unexpectedly causing a surge in the price of Curve token.

Insiders revealed that payment giant PayPal is reportedly considering acquiring cryptocurrency custody company Curv for $500 million. This unexpected news has caused a surge in the token price of the similarly named DeFi protocol Curve.

PayPal Plans to Acquire Cryptocurrency Custodian

According to Coindesk, sources familiar with the matter have revealed that payment giant PayPal is in talks to acquire the cryptocurrency custodian company Curv. An anonymous source in the digital asset custody space told Coindesk:

"PayPal is planning to acquire Curv for $500 million, the source is very reliable, and I am confident this is true."

Several individuals in the cryptocurrency space mentioned that after the failed acquisition of BitGo last year, PayPal shifted its focus to Curv. The acquisition of Curv by PayPal is currently in the negotiation stage, with the final outcome still uncertain.

Curv or Curve?

Following the exposure of this acquisition, traders and speculators in the cryptocurrency market seemed to confuse Curv with the decentralized finance protocol Curve Finance. Within an hour of the news release, Curve's CRV token surged over 10%. Some traders even placed orders directly on Twitter, prompting Curve's official account to clarify the confusion.

The correct account for that is @curvmpc, not us

— Curve Finance (@CurveFinance) March 2, 2021

Once speculators and traders realized the mistake, CRV quickly retraced its gains. The Block's Research Director Larry Cermak humorously mentioned that it took the market 20 minutes to realize Curve and Curv were not the same company.

It took the market like 20 minutes to figure out that Curve is not the same company as Curv. Efficient they say! pic.twitter.com/zwE15GqA7r

— Larry Cermak 🫡 (@lawmaster) March 2, 2021

However, this error seemed to have inadvertently brought publicity and trading heat to Curve, as despite the temporary retracement in CRV price, it subsequently rose from $2.2 to a high of $2.6. At the time of writing, the token had surged by 20% in the past 24 hours. In hindsight, this might have been a beautiful mistake for CRV.

This TRX, Not That TRX

Interestingly, this isn't the first time speculators bought the wrong asset due to hasty trading decisions. In January this year, the forum WallStreetBets, known for high-risk speculative trading, entered the cryptocurrency market and played a "Pump and dump" money game, with TRX being one of the targets.

However, after the forum hyped TRX, it unexpectedly caused a surge in the stock of a Tanzanian gold company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as the company's stock code was also TRX. On that day, TRX stock price rose from $0.85 to over $1.90, before closing down by approximately 15%.