What just happened? The price of Bitcoin has surged close to $40,000 on the back of claims that Amazon plans to accept the crypto for payments. BTC briefly passed $39,000 for the first time since mid-June a few hours ago and is worth $38,754 at the time of writing.
The price jump follows the recent discovery of a job advertisement for a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead” at Amazon. “The Payments Acceptance & Experience team is seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap,” reads the ad.
It seems Amazon is preparing to join other companies in accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for products listed on the site. An insider told City A.M. that this is set to take place before the end of the year, and Amazon is investigating its own token for 2022.
Bitcoin got quite a boost this morning
“This isn’t just going through the motions to set up cryptocurrency payment solutions at some point in the future – this is a full-on, well-discussed, integral part of the future mechanism of how Amazon will work,” she told City AM. “It begins with Bitcoin – this is the key first stage of this crypto project, and the directive is coming from the very top… Jeff Bezos himself.”
The insider claimed Amazon is looking to accept other cryptos as payment methods once Bitcoin has been established on the platform. “Ethereum, Cardano and Bitcoin Cash will be next in line before they bring about eight of the most popular cryptocurrencies online,” she added. “It won’t take long because the plans are already there, and they have been working on them since 2019.”
Bitcoin gained a similar boost earlier this year when Tesla said it would start accepting the crypto, but Elon Musk reversed those plans. The CEO recently said the EV maker would likely resume accepting BTC at some point, pushing its value up again. If Amazon really is planning to embrace Bitcoin, expect to see it skyrocket.