Amazon denies accepting Bitcoin as a payment method

Amazon denies accepting Bitcoin as a payment method
Amazon denies accepting Bitcoin as a payment method

Amazon has rejected a media report conveying that it has plans to accept Bitcoin as a payment option by this year. An Amazon spokesperson said “Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true. We remain focused on exploring what this could look like for customers shopping on Amazon.”

London-based financial paper City reported a specific series of the company’s future plans and mentioned a company insider as its source. The report highlighted Amazon is willing to accept Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. The article also talked about Amazon’s own “native token.”

The article claimed cryptocurrency-related instructions came from Jeff Bezos although he stepped down from the post of CEO recently. It is to be noted that Amazon’s statement doesn’t specifically mention this report but it tallied around the “specific plans” being circulated in the media houses.

It seems the wave of speculation was prompted by a job listing from the company. Last week it posted a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead” job where it mentioned the company is looking for someone to explore how the company could make use of cryptocurrency technology as part of its business.

At that time, a company spokesperson said “We’re inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon.”

Interestingly, these reports have caused wild swings in the price of Bitcoin. The price of the cryptocurrency shot up by as much as 14.5 per cent on Monday. However, the price fell from over $40,000 to under $37,000. Note that before this report, bitcoin was trading between a range of $29,000 to $32,000.

If Amazon starts accepting Bitcoin then it would be a significant move for the cryptocurrency community. Previously, Tesla started accepting the cryptocurrency in the US but stopped within two months citing environmental concerns. It is to be noted that Amazon has announced a $2 billion climate fund last year so these environmental concerns are going to stay with Amazon for the time being.

Michael Turner
Michael is the Senior Editor at TheNewsPocket. He is an environmental activist with broad, deep experience in print and online writing, publication and site management, news coverage, and editorial team management.