Cloud computing and e-commerce giant Amazon have not ruled out the possibility of entering the cryptocurrency industry. Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, said that the company considers the digital assets industry to be an “emerging area.”
Amazon CEO: Over time you’ll see crypto become bigger
Speaking in an interview with CNBC, Jassy stated that there was a lot of discussion going on about the very interesting crypto market. In particular, he expects the NFT market to do very well in future, noting that it had already started to take off.
The CEO, who recently took over the reins at Amazon from Jeff Bezos, opined that the company is “probably” not close to adding crypto as a payment method. However, he does not rule out the possibility in the future as the industry matures.
“I expect that NFTs will continue to grow very significantly. We’re not probably close to adding crypto as a payment mechanism in our retail business. But I do believe over time you’ll see crypto become bigger and it’s possible,” he said.
On further probing, he also added that an Amazon NFT marketplace may be likely in the future. Kassy disclosed that he does not own either NFTs or Bitcoin and other altcoins.
The CEO’s interview is coming just after he released his first annual shareholders’ letter which makes no mention of digital assets. However, Amazon has over time advertised several job postings to fill crypto-related roles.
Last July, Amazon’s payment team first advertised a role of a digital currency and blockchain expert. This was followed by a posting by Amazon Web Services for financial services expert who understands crypto and the digital assets ecosystem.
Amazon feeling heat from competitors?
While Amazon has not revealed any solid plans, its competitors both in payments services and online retail shopping are opening their arms to crypto. Bolt, a payments service provider, recently acquired a web 3 company, Wyre, for an eye-popping $1.5 billion. With the deal, which is the biggest so far in the crypto industry, the company hopes to allow merchants to offer crypto payments from online shoppers.
Similarly, e-commerce platform Shopify announced a partnership with Strike that will make Bitcoin-to-cash payments possible for all its merchants globally. The payments will, notably, be facilitated by the highly cost-effective and fast Bitcoin Lightning Network. Their moves underscore the growing popularity and adoption of crypto globally.
