Following weeks of rumors, Braintree has announced that it will soon enable customers to accept bitcoin.

Braintree, a subsidiary of eBay-owned PayPal that was acquired for $800m in 2013, revealed on its blog that it intends to release a software development kit (SDK) that developers and merchants can use to add bitcoin to their existing payment methods.

The integration is the result of a partnership with Coinbase, which was first reported to be in talks with Braintree about a potential partnership this August. Further, the news was officially announced at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco during a talk given by Braintree CEO Bill Ready.

Ready told TechCrunch:

“This is PayPal making a move to embrace bitcoin.”

The official announcement also followed a teaser video that caused a stir in the bitcoin community today issued by PayPal itself and suggesting that Braintree’s parent company may move to accept bitcoin.

Coinbase indicated that developers at Coinbase and Braintree will be working together closely over the next few months to complete the integration. No formal timeline for the official launch date was given.

Early access

In its blog post regarding the announcement, Coinbase indicated that Braintree businesses will need to open a new merchant account with Coinbase in order to complete the integration upon its release.

However, Braintree merchants that want to get in early on the opportunity can move to contact Coinbase now through a dedicated email address. Further, Coinbase indicated that it will also disseminate future news relating to the launch through this mailing list.

As previously noted, the mobile payments processor supports thousands of high-tech startups, including notable brand names such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Hail-O, Hotel Tonight, LivingSocial, OpenTable, TaskRabbit and Uber and more.

Hat tip to TechCrunch

Braintree offices image via Fast Company