Bitcoin Prices Surge Amid Speculation Over Amazon Plan

Bitcoin surged nearly $40,000 level on Monday to cross 12% in the process, driven by speculations that Amazon is looking to explore cryptocurrency payments options on its platform.

According to media reports, the global e-commerce giant is looking for a digital currency and blockchain product head for its payments team, Amazon’s latest job postings suggested.

“The Payments Acceptance & Experience team is seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap,” the e-commerce platform said in a hiring post.

“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,” the company further added. The product lead will work closely with teams across Amazon, including Amazon Web Services to develop a technical strategy for better customer experience.

This is a clear indication that Amazon is looking to explore cryptocurrency payments options on its platform, according to market experts. “We’re inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon. 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,” said a media statement shared by Amazon.

In January 2021, the Bitcoin Cryptocurrency surged to an all-time high after Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla invested $1.5 billion. In May, the car maker had stopped accepting bitcoin for car purchases, citing cryptocurrency’s impact on the environment. Last week, Mush said his company will soon resume accepting payments in Bitcoin.

“I’m a supporter of bitcoin and I think bitcoin is really on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people,” he said in a recent interview.

Earlier in May, Apple was also looking for a business development manager “working in or with alternative payment providers, such as digital wallets, BNPL, Fast Payments, cryptocurrency, and etc.”

Meanwhile, Jack Dorsey, chief executive officer, Twitter said that online world needs a global currency. “If the Internet has a native currency, a global currency, we are able to move faster with products such as Super Follows, e-commerce, Subscription, Tip Jar and we can reach every single person on the planet,” Dorsey said during an investors’ call last week. “There are three trends relevant to Twitter and our shareholders. AI, decentralization and the Internet, finally having access to a global native currency in Bitcoin. All these will help us do our jobs better and we intend to lead the way in each,” he emphasized.

“Most people access the internet on mobile. Any solution we build must provide an excellent experience when using mobile, despite its shortcomings and liabilities. An uncompromising focus on mobile interaction is likely to include the most people,” he added.

Avinash Shekhar, Co-CEO, ZebPay, comments, “We are always bullish on the fundamentals of Bitcoin. Price fluctuations like this are just a sign of an early market and it’ll be stabilized once the market matures. When you look at bitcoin, you are looking at an asset with innovative technologies like triple entry bookkeeping, decentralization, and a public ledger.”

He believes, the best part is that more upgrades are coming to this network to make it more efficient. When we say we are bullish on bitcoin, we are looking at the future potential of this asset and the strong fundamentals it holds. Also, if you look at the larger time frame, these small price fluctuations would be invisible and that’s why we recommend investing in bitcoin for the long run.

For the short term, we’re looking at the bitcoin price of above $42,000 to confirm a bull market based on the technical analysis by our traded desk.”