Apple’s CEO Reveals His Crypto Portfolio
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook has confirmed that he has investments in some of the biggest cryptos in the world, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Will Apple adopt cryptocurrency payments and what does the soaring crypto market now mean for one of the biggest tech giants in the world ? Let’s take a look!
The Crypto Market Cap Is Surging
It’s no surprise that the popularity of cryptocurrencies has soared rapidly over the past year or so. As shown by the chart above, despite the slight hiccups, cryptos have been growing exponentially. While many altcoins and meme coins have also contributed to the growing numbers, most of the credit can be given to Bitcoin and Ethereum. The cryptocurrency market enjoyed an all-time high of $3 trillion on Tuesday, November 9th; the first time that the crypto market has ever crossed the $3 trillion barrier.
After rallying throughout October, Bitcoin has continued it’s strong ascent as it climbed another 7% and traded as high as $69,500. Ethereum has not been doing too badly either, reaching up to $4,800 after surging another 4% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. If these stats aren’t crazy enough, let’s do a year-by-year comparison. Back in November 2020, the crypto market cap was $578 billion. Since then, it has grown nearly five-fold, or by 500%. For a market that has been deemed extremely volatile, those sound like pretty positive returns for the HODLers of various coins.
https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1458183230587379718
Blockworks took to Twitter to post this graph comparing the crypto rise over the last decade to the internet’s rise in the 90s; another sign of the growing crypto market over the last decade. This has attracted the attention of some mainstream players, including the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook.
Tim Cook’s Interest In Crypto
It now looks like Tim Cook is finally aboard the digital currency train. Speaking at The New York Times Dealbook conference, he confirmed his interest in cryptocurrencies in general.
https://twitter.com/dealbook/status/1458091701252378624
Dealbook took to Twitter to confirm the CEO’s interest in crypto. “Tim Cook of Apple reveals that he has personally invested in cryptocurrency. ‘I think it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio’, he said at the DealBook online summit”.
After the interview, Andrew Sorkin asked Tim Cook if he owns any cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, he confirmed that this is indeed the case. “I do,” responded Cook, going on to state that he thinks it’s reasonable to hold crypto-assets as part of a diversified portfolio. After being asked about when he started getting interested in the crypto space, Tim Cook confirmed that this was something that he had been looking into for a while now.
In the way that Tim Cook phrased his statement, he tried to make it clear that his company, Apple, does not actually own any cryptocurrency. He specified that this is something that is a personal decision. The interesting debate also regards the financial assets that Tim Cook actually owns. If we are going by popular demand, it is more than likely that Tim Cook’s biggest investments will be between Bitcoin and Ethereum. But, he made a choice to not tell the public about which ones he actually has investments in. This could also mean that he owns other altcoins aside from the top two cryptocurrencies in the world.
Many companies and organizations have recently been big on creating NFT marketplaces and one-off trading collections, which are most popular among Ethereum and Cardano. A move like that down the line for Apple is not impossible either, given that they are huge in the tech industry and it would be a great diversification strategy, should they choose to go down that path. But interestingly enough, Tim Cook has also provided some cryptic information regarding the possibility of Apple buying crypto stock, or interpreting cryptocurrency in their organization for buying and selling.
Will Apple Buy Cryptocurrencies?
In the interview, Tim Cook mentioned that cryptocurrency investments have only been made from a personal point of view. Cook also rejected the possibility of Apple buying cryptocurrency with corporate funds as an investment.
“I wouldn’t go invest in crypto, not because I wouldn’t invest my own money, but because I don’t think people buy Apple stock to get exposure to crypto,” he said. It is also interesting to note that Apple does not have any cryptocurrency products or services, and while the company does allow crypto wallet apps on its iPhone App Store, it prohibits mining apps. That may be due to the negative press Bitcoin and crypto mining have been receiving, due to the linkage of mining to harmful impacts on the environment. Apple has released financial services through its Wallet app, which includes contactless Apple Pay, peer-to-peer payments, and the Apple Card credit card.
If Apple does introduce cryptocurrency products or services, they are many years away. An Apple Pay executive said in 2019 that the company saw “long-term potential” in cryptocurrency. But, when being asked about the possibility of cryptocurrency adoption within Apple, Cook did not shut down the claims.
‘It’s something we are looking at. It’s not something we have immediate plans to do. I’m not planning to take crypto for our products as a means of tender but there are other things that we are definitely looking at.’ The interviewer continued to try and get something out of the billionaire CEO, but unfortunately, Tim Cook wouldn’t reveal anymore.
For crypto investors, this news should be taken in a positive light. A few years ago no one would take the space that seriously, and now we have a lot of widespread adoption that has helped the market become bigger than some of the biggest companies in the world today. As for Apple, plans may change in the years to come, since the volatility is a big issue for most companies. With the SEC breathing down the necks of many assets and demanding a centralized marketplace, things could change pretty soon.
