Tim Cook reveals he owns crypto on day Bitcoin hits all-time high of $ 68,000

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Apple CEO Tim Cook rocked Twitter by revealing that he personally owns a cryptocurrency and has been interested in it for “some time.”

Cook, whose real-time net worth is around $ 1.4 billion, has denied rumors that Apple is targeting crypto as an investment even as bitcoin and ethereum prices hit new highs. He said Apple is reviewing the crypto, but might not offer users a way to pay with it anytime soon.

Cook was speaking at the Dealbook Online Summit on Tuesday. “I think it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio,” he told DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, quickly adding that he was not giving investment advice.

Twitter users saw this as a rare glimpse into how Cook manages his wallet, as well as a revelation that he researched crypto.

Apple has about $ 200 billion in cash. “It’s not something we have immediate plans to do.”

“But never say never,” Cook joked.

A growing number of large companies have incorporated crypto into their operations. Tesla, for example, started accepting payments for its electric cars, but quit abruptly in May citing environmental concerns. The company also bought bitcoin worth $ 1.5 billion in its corporate treasury. Bitcoin and ethereum – the two most popular forms of cryptocurrency – both hit new highs on Tuesday morning, with the price of bitcoin first surpassing $ 68,000 and ethereum surpassing $ 4,800.

Right now, bitcoin is legal in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and most other developed countries. In emerging markets, the legal status of bitcoin varies.

China severely restricts bitcoin without criminalizing the holding of bitcoins. India has banned banks from trading bitcoin and is reportedly moving towards a “middle path” on this.

Even when bitcoin is legal, most of the laws that apply to other assets also apply to bitcoin. Tax law is the area in which people are likely to have problems. For tax purposes, bitcoin is generally treated as a property rather than a currency.

The Biden administration is becoming increasingly cautious about crypto. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said this month that the regulator would be “very active” in bringing the digital currency market into its investor protection framework. Many tokens in the crypto markets are dead, and many existing tokens are raising funds from the public, posing risks such as fraud and manipulation, Gensler said.

El Salvador became the first country to recognize bitcoin as legal tender in June 2021. The digital currency known as bitcoin was created in 2009 by a person or entity using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. The identity was never established. There are no physical bitcoins that match dollar or euro banknotes. It only exists on the Internet, usually in digital wallets. Registers called blockchains are used to track the existence of bitcoins. It can be given directly to or received from anyone with a bitcoin address through peer-to-peer transactions. Bitcoin is also traded on certain exchanges around the world, which is how it is priced.

Part of the appeal of bitcoin to some holders is that it is not distributed or controlled by any government or nation. Unlike opening a bank account to store dollars, euros, or yen, starting a bitcoin account does not require providing credentials. Bitcoin is effectively anonymous, and law enforcement cannot freeze a bitcoin account like they might with a bank account.

(Nikhila Natarajan tweets @byniknat)

–IANS

nikhila / int / pgh

(Only the title and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)

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