Apple must buy Bitcoin and turn the Wallet app into Crypto Exchange: RBC

Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world thanks to the success of its iPhones, Mac computers and software products. Longstanding rumors about his work in an electric car design recently heated up again, but at least one bank believes the company should turn its attention to something else: Bitcoin.

RBC Capital Markets, an investment bank that is part of the The Royal Bank of Canada told customers in a note today that it believes Apple is positioned to take advantage of the growing interest in cryptocurrency. The RBC suggests that the tech giant should build foreign exchange encryption within its existing iPhone Wallet service, and that getting into encryption would be less risky and expensive than making electric cars.

“The portfolio initiative appears to be a clear billion-dollar opportunity for the company (potential for well over $ 40 billion in annual revenue from limited R&D),” wrote RBC analyst Mitch Steves, according to Bloomberg.

In addition, Steves suggests that Apple should buy and hold Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency as a backup asset, just as electric car maker Tesla announced today. Tesla bought $ 1.5 billion Bitcoin, following the example of the business intelligence company MicroStrategy, which bought $ 250 million in August 2020 and continued to add more in the past six months.

According to Steves, tthe gains from Apple’s investment of just four to five days of cash flow, about $ 1 billion, would essentially cover the company’s costs of developing its “cryptographic wallet / exchange”.

“This would send even more users to the ‘Apple Exchange’,” wrote Steves, suggesting that it would also increase the price of Bitcoin in the process. After Tesla’s announcement this morning, Bitcoin’s price jumped about $ 5,000 today to set a new historical record $ 44,127, according to CoinGecko.

MicroStrategy saw a huge impact from its unconventional decision to buy large amounts of Bitcoin as a reserve asset. As explored in another article today, MicroStrategy has spent just $ 1.145 billion on its Bitcoin stakes since August 2020, and now worth more than $ 3 billion. In addition, the company’s stock price has skyrocketed about 667% since the company announced its Bitcoin strategy.

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor believes that an “avalanche of companies” will follow your model, and Tesla validated the idea on a large scale today. Could Apple really be one of the next companies to follow suit?

Apple has not given any public indication of interest in cryptography so far, but at least RBC believes it could be mutually beneficial to both the tech giant and Bitcoin.