PayPal Holdings has announced that it will allow customers in the UK to buy, sell and hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The roll-out, which marks the first international expansion of PayPal's cryptocurrencies services outside of the United States, could inspire further mainstream adoption of the new asset class.

PayPal has around 403 million active accounts globally, and is one of the largest mainstream financial companies to offer consumers access to cryptocurrencies. It marks the first international expansion of PayPal’s crypto product, which first launched in the US in October last year.

“It has been doing really well in the U.S.,” Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s general manager for blockchain, crypto and digital currencies, told CNBC. “We expect it’s going to do well in the U.K.”

PayPal’s crypto feature lets customers buy or sell cryptocurrencies as little as £1. Users can also track crypto prices in real-time, and find educational content on the market.

Like the U.S. version of the product, PayPal is relying on Paxos, a New York-regulated digital currency company, to enable crypto buying and selling in the U.K. PayPal said it has engaged with relevant U.K. regulators to launch the service.

PayPal says its foray into crypto is about making it easier for people to participate in the market. “The tokens and coins have been around for a while but you had to be a relatively sophisticated user to be able to access that,” da Ponte said. “Having that on a platform like ours makes a really good entry point.”

The payments processor is one of many large finance companies taking a leap into the mostly unregulated world of cryptocurrencies.  The move comes as more established financial companies have started offering their clients, both consumers and institutions, access to digital assets, amid rising cryptocurrency prices.