They likely did, you clearly did not: "... a person is an exchanger and a money transmitter if the person accepts such de-centralized convertible virtual currency from one person and transmits it to another person as part of the acceptance and transfer of currency, funds, or other value that substitutes for currency"[emphasis mine]

from http://fincen.gov/statutes_regs/guidance/html/FIN-2013-G001....

That particular section may or may not cover Paypal, but certainly you don't get out of the money transmitting rules by not dealing with "money."

I didn't say you get out of money transmitter rules. Just that Paypal's "currency exchange" reading and analogy is wrong - see: "...a person who accepts real currency in exchange for virtual currency, or vice versa, is not a dealer in foreign exchange under FinCEN's regulations."

You're still not getting it. Paypal isn't subject to the foreign currency rules of the FinCEN regulations because virtual currencies aren't foreign currencies. Paypal is still subject to the other rules that apply to money transmitters.

Ha, come on! That's what I said, we agree! David Marcus is the one saying that it's like Foreign Exchange, which is weird because we both agree it's not under FinCEN rules.

I never said that Paypal isn't a money transmitter, nor that there are not any other FinCEN rules both PayPal and others have to follow.

Sigh.

As the other responder pointed out, Paypal would be a money transmitter under FinCEN regulations. What FinCen was saying is that Bitcoin and other digital currencies aren't "currencies" in the legal sense because they have no government backing. However, they are "virtual currencies" in the sense that they otherwise function and behave as true currencies. Consequently, the FinCEN regulations apply to Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

FinCEN further stated that miners and persons who are using Bitcoin in non-currency transactions(i.e., paying for services, physical goods, or non-digital-currency intangible goods) are not subject to the FinCEN regulations because they aren't exchanging one currency for another, directly or indirectly, and they aren't functioning as commercial money transmitters.