Apple CEO Tim Cook has disclosed that he owns cryptocurrency, but said the investment was from a “personal point of view” and not indicative of Apple having crypto ambitions.
- The comments came during the New York Times DealBook conference on Monday morning ET in a recorded interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin.
- Asked if he personally owns bitcoin or ether, Cook responded, “I do. I think it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio.”
- He continued, however, “I wouldn’t go invest in crypto [for Apple], not because I wouldn’t invest my own money, but because I don’t think people buy Apple stock to get exposure to crypto.” Cook went on to say Apple has no immediate plans to accept crypto payments.
- Cook’s crypto comments lit up Twitter discussions. MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor was among the voices weighing in and tweeted, “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.”
- Apple doesn’t currently have any crypto products or services. Early this year, an Apple job posting showed that the payments unit was looking for a crypto-savvy person to lead partnership efforts.
