Brad Smith, Microsoft’s CEO announces that it has no immediate intentions to invest its corporate assets in Bitcoin (BTC) despite the current surge in similar investments.
“I haven’t heard any new conversation about bitcoin, but let me just say: if we change our investment policy on bitcoin, Julia, you’ll be the first, well, at least the second to know,” Smith informed CNN’s Julia Chatterley after asked if the company’s board was discussing “cryptodiversification.”
Chatterley stated that she was forced to ask the question about “bitcoin on the balance sheet in light of what Tesla has decided to do.”
Since Tesla declared it has invested USD 1.5bn in bitcoin and aims to start accepting the cryptocurrency as payment for its electric cars, bitcoin’s price skyrocketed, exceeding USD 51,000 today.
Reacting to Smith’s vague statement, the Twitter commentariat was divided on Microsoft’s reluctant position on bitcoin.
“The sensible CEOs are the ones waiting on the outcome of the Ripple vs SEC case, to think they won’t be after Bitcoin next with heavy scrutiny and regulation is just daft, Bitcoin has threatened the US dollar future as the world reserve currency, doubt they will let that slide,” twitted a user, who goes by the name Gaz Oldskool and self-identifies as a crypto fanboy.
While Microsoft might not be hopping on the bitcoin-investing bandwagon right away, back in 2014, the firm enabled customers to pay for some of its products with bitcoin.
In either case, Microsoft is not the only major corporation that confirmed it has no intentions to invest in BTC.
Even online payments giant PayPal, which will spare no effort in allowing its customers to fill their boots with crypto-related offerings, will “probably” not be following Tesla’s lead in BTC buying just yet.
A recent Gartner survey of 77 finance executives revealed that only 5% claimed they plan to hold BTC as a corporate asset in 2021. Some 84% of the respondents said they do not intend to invest their corporate funds in cryptocurrency due to bitcoin’s price volatility.
Simultaneously, one of the most bullish non-crypto companies, US-based software developer MicroStrategy stated yesterday that it once again intends to borrow up to USD 690m and spend it on BTC. At the end of January, the company owned approximately BTC 70,784 (USD 3.6bn).
At the time of reporting (12:34 PM UTC), BTC trades at USD 51,300, correcting lower from its new all-time high of USD 51,616, reached earlier today, per Coingecko.com data. The price is up by 2% in a day and 10% in a week. It rallied by 43% in a month and 416% in a year.
To get the latest Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and Crypto-mining news, please join our Telegram Channel
No Comment