AMAZON BOOSTS BITCOIN

Job post lifts crypto

The price of bitcoin surged above $40,000 for the first time in over a month on Monday — before quickly dipping back down — as a job posting from Amazon hinted that the company is considering embracing cryptocurrencies.

The last time the digital coin was above the $40,000 threshold was June 15. In late June and July, cryptocurrencies endured a brutal sell-off as bitcoin prices dipped as low as $29,300 amid investor worries about the Chinese government’s crackdown on crypto mining.

Bitcoin hit an all-time peak of nearly $65,000 per coin in April.

Other popular cryptos also rallied into the start of the week. Ethereum surged almost 13 percent to $2,411 per coin as of midafternoon, cardano was up almost 14 percent to $1.36 and Dogecoin logged a 15 percent increase to 22 cents, according to Coinbase data.

The overall crypto market swelled by more than $180 billion in market cap on Monday, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The surge in value comes after e-commerce giant Amazon posted an ad for a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead.”

“As one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, Amazon processes billions of secure on-line transactions via numerous payment methods and capabilities around the globe,” the ad says.

“The Payments Acceptance & Experience team is seeking an experienced product leader to develop Amazon’s Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap,” it adds.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the company is looking for opportunities to engage in the crypto space.

“We’re inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon,” the spokesperson said. “We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast, and inexpensive payments, and hope to bring that future to Amazon customers as soon as possible.”

And according to an anonymous source within Amazon that was quoted by London newspaper City A.M., the job posting is just the surface of a more committed push into the space directed by Jeff Bezos himself.

“This isn’t just going through the motions to set up cryptocurrency payment solutions at some point in the future — this is a full-on, well-discussed, integral part of the future mechanism of how Amazon will work,” the anonymous source told City A.M.

Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon earlier this month, but remains executive chairman of the board of directors.