When Tesla announced last February that it had purchased $1.5 billion in bitcoin, that’s when the world was convinced that bitcoin should be taken seriously.
And several months after Tesla’s announcement, it is rumored that another industry giant would jump into the bitcoin pool by purchasing $2 billion worth of the crypto.
According to rumors that are now flooding social media, Apple is planning to announce its mega-bitcoin purchase soon.
Skeptics say the rumor is unlikely
While it’s not hard to think that a giant like Apple can easily purchase $2 billion worth of bitcoin, many analysts say the tech juggernaut won’t do it, even if it can.
According to Alexander Ross, a DevOps engineer, Apple is too brand conscious to even associate itself with bitcoin, which remains to be controversial crypto.
Ross added that bitcoin’s image does not fit with Apple’s, which is why the $2 billion rumor is unlikely to happen. Making a big jump into the bitcoin field would be “too rebellious” for Apple, he said.
Apple, in the crypto sidelines
Apple has expressed interest in cryptocurrency in the past but has not done any big moves yet to support it.
The tech company has recently posted a job for a Business Development Manager for “alternative payment,” which is another term for cryptocurrencies.
In 2019, Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay, said cryptocurrencies are “interesting” which is an indication that Apple’s payment platform might consider cryptocurrencies in the future.
According to Mitch Steves, RBC Capital Markets analyst, if Apple Pay pursues this path, the company could generate as much as $40 billion from crypto exchange functionality.
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