A previous item incorrectly reported the time frame of the stock's rally. It has been corrected.

PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL, +2.49% shares are up 0.5% in midday trading Monday after it was revealed that the company recently filed for a patent related to bitcoin. The company's patent filing was for an "expedited virtual currency transaction system" and was flagged by Bitcoin.com. Such a system could potentially speed up bitcoin BTCUSD, -4.28% transactions and be anonymous. Shares of PayPal were originally down to start the day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -2.26% was interested in creating its own product similar to a checking account. PayPal's stock is up 84% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 Index SPX, -2.44% has gained 14%.