The news: Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed on Tuesday that he owns cryptocurrency and that Apple is broadly exploring it while he appeared at the NYT DealBook Online Summit.
- While clarifying that he was not providing investment advice, Cook said “I think it’s reasonable to own it (crypto) as part of a diversified portfolio…it’s something from a personal point of view that I’m interested in”
- The CEO clarified that Apple as a company has no plans to purchase cryptocurrency with cash on the balance sheet, saying that folks don’t buy Apple stock to get exposure to crypto…but that they are exploring the space
- Cook said that Apple is exploring crypto integration but has no immediate plans to accept it as payment or implement it in products like Apple Pay yet
Our take: As a fellow crypto bro, Cook is spot-on here: owning crypto at this point is a no-brainer for at least some of your financial portfolio. I’m disappointed that he didn’t announce any official plans for crypto integration today, but I’m incredibly excited to see what the future holds for Apple and blockchain technology. Just imagine a crypto wallet built into the Wallet app on iPhone…
