Amazon Might Accept Bitcoin As Volatile Cryptocurrency Soars Towards $40,000
Just last week, Bitcoin crashed below $30,000, descending to its lowest point in a month, and dropping to less than half of its peak value from April of this year. And today? It is not only back above $30,000, it is fast approaching $40,000 on speculation that Amazon will soon begin accepting the volatile cryptocurrency for online purchases.
At the time of this writing, Bitcoin is up nearly 13 percent in the past 24 hours, to $38,449. That's still well below its all-time high of $64,829, but for proponents of Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency in general), it is again trending in the right direction. It also highlights the wild swings that the world's most popular digital currency is prone to.
It seems Amazon's interest in cryptocurrency is fueling the current ascension. There are two clues at play here. The first one is a job listing by Amazon for a Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead.
"The Payments Acceptance & Experience team is seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap. You will leverage your domain expertise in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrency to develop the case for the capabilities which should be developed, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities," reads part of the job description.
Amazon's cryptocurrency job listing makes it clear that the person responsible will "develop the roadmap" for the company's entry into digital currencies, and mentions being in charge of its "launch strategy." The wording leaves little doubt of where Amazon is headed.
What the job listing does not mention is Bitcoin specifically. However, that would be the most logical cryptocurrency for Amazon to jump into, as other prominent companies have done (like PayPal). Furthermore, a supposed "insider" told London news outlet City A.M. that Amazon is on a mission to accept Bitcoin by the end of 2021.
Amazon's efforts won't stop there, reportedly. The same insider claims Amazon is looking at developing its own blockchain token next year, which ties in with some of the wording in the aforementioned job listing. And apparently Amazon is pretty serious about all this.
"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," the insider reportedly said. "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."
As the story goes, Amazon will accept other cryptocurrencies at some point too—eight of them in total, including Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. It's said this is something Amazon has been planning for at least the last two years.
It is interesting that the insider mentions Bezos as the one giving the directive. Earlier this month, Bezos stepped down as CEO, and now serves as executive chair. Andy Jassy is the new CEO of Amazon. Given that this effort began in 2019, however, it makes sense that Bezos is involved in some capacity.
