By Wayt
The price of bitcoin surged above $40,000 for the first time in over a month on Monday as job posting from Amazon hinted that the company is considering embracing cryptocurrencies.
The price of the digital currency was last seen trading almost 17 percent higher, at $40,500 per coin as of Monday afternoon, according to Coinbase data.
The last time digital coin was above the $40,000 threshold was June 15. In late June and July, cryptocurrencies endured a brutal sell-off as Bitcoin prices dipped as low as $29,300 amid investor worries about the Chinese government’s crackdown on crypto mining.
Despite Monday’s impressive performance, Bitcoin remains 38 percent below its all-time peak in April of nearly $65,000 per coin.
Other popular cryptos also rallied into the start of the week. Ethereum surged almost 13 percent to $2,411 per coin as mid-afternoon, cardano was up almost 14 percent to $1.36 and Dogecoin logged a 15 percent increase to 22 cents, according to Coinbase data.
The surge in value comes after e-commerce giant Amazon posted an ad for a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead.”
“As one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, Amazon processes billions of secure on-line transactions via numerous payment methods and capabilities around the globe,” the ad says.
“The Payments Acceptance & Experience team is seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap,” it adds.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the company is looking for opportunities to engage in the crypto space.
“We’re inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon,” the spokesperson said. “We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast, and inexpensive payments, and hope to bring that future to Amazon customers as soon as possible.”
And according to an anonymous source within Amazon that was quoted by London newspaper City A.M., the job posting is just the surface of a more committed push into the space directed by Jeff Bezos himself.
“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 anonymous source told City A.M. in the article, which was published early Monday.
“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 source added.
Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon earlier this month, but remains executive chairman of the board of directors.
“Ethereum, cardano and bitcoin cash will be next in line before they bring about eight of the most popular cryptocurrencies online,” the source added, according to City A.M.
The source also claimed that Amazon’s crypto push has been in motion since 2019.
However, the Amazon spokesperson pushed back on the statements in City A.M., though the spokesperson did not comment on any specific claims.
“Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true,” the spokesperson said. “We remain focused on exploring what this could look like for customers shopping on Amazon.”
Also perhaps pushing the price of bitcoin higher is last week’s “The B-Word” conference. in which Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood all came together for a discussion on bitcoin.
At the conference, Musk said Tesla will “most likely” start accepting bitcoin again as more renewable energy is being used to mine the digital currency.
He also reiterated that he’s not selling his personal holdings of bitcoin any time soon and disclosed that his company SpaceX also owns bitcoin.
Adan Kedem, chief marketing officer for Kirobo, a firm that helps secure cryptocurrency transactions, said a variety of factors could be affecting the price movements.
But the main suspect is Elon Musk’s “love-hate relationship with bitcoin.”
“According to his recent statements – he’s now leaning much more towards loving the coin and believing in it,” Kedem said by email.
Twitter’s Dorsey also had kind words for the crypto, saying later last week on the company’s earnings call with analysts that bitcoin will be a “big part” of the future of the social media company.
Brock Pierce, chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group, noted that the “overall market structure” has helped push the price of bitcoin higher as well – suggesting that some traders who were betting against bitcoin have now been caught in a so-called short squeeze that’s forcing them to liquidate and cut off losses, thereby pushing the price even higher.
“Cryptocurrencies are having a nice rebound here after the market has digested a lot of the negative news and fear that was driving the market for the last couple months, Pierce added.
