Several crypto stakeholders have advised Apple, the iPhone maker, to invest in Bitcoin.
In a Feb. 16 post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Shapeshift CEO and founder Erik Voorhees urged the technology company to quietly “buy several billion of BTC” and make the top crypto a payment method in its Apple Pay product.
He said this move would help the company “make a billion dollars instantly” and further drive the top crypto adoption.
Chen Fang, the chief operating officer of BitGo, suggested that integrating BTC into Apple Pay and Apple’s new Vision Pro headset would allow the company to “dominate metaverse payments.”
In 2021, Michael Saylor, the chairman of the largest corporate holder of BTC, MicroStrategy, said:
“If Apple were to add support for Bitcoin to the iPhone and convert their treasury to a Bitcoin Standard, it would be worth at least a trillion dollars to their shareholders.”
Over recent years, institutional enthusiasm for BTC has surged, culminating in the launch of numerous spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These ETFs represent a significant milestone, granting access to Bitcoin for a broader array of prominent financial institutions and funds.
Apple’s relationship with Bitcoin
Apple, the second-largest company by market capitalization, has a complex relationship with the emerging crypto sector.
The company previously hosted the Bitcoin whitepaper on its Mac computers for an extended duration. At the same time, Apple’s App Store has stringent policies regarding cryptocurrencies, resulting in the brief removals of various crypto-related applications like MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Trust Wallet, Damus, and others.
Despite these challenges, key figures within Apple have expressed positive sentiments towards crypto. Co-founder Steve Wozniak endorsed Bitcoin as a sound investment choice, revealing that he once made significant investments in the digital asset.
Similarly, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned his ownership of digital assets in 2021, emphasizing that it reflected his views rather than Apple’s official stance on cryptocurrencies.