Uber Considering Bitcoin For Ride and Food Payments

Uber may soon join the ranks of companies accepting bitcoin as a means of payments, its CEO said Thursday morning on CNBC. “Just like we accept all kinds of local currency we are going to look at cryptocurrency and or bitcoin […]

by Sam Reynolds /

February 11, 2021 09:36 am

key takeaways

In an interview with CNBC, the CEO of Uber said it would consider accepting bitcoin as “another currency”
Uber is not considering adding digital assets to its balance sheet

Uber may soon join the ranks of companies accepting bitcoin as a means of payments, its CEO said Thursday morning on CNBC.

“Just like we accept all kinds of local currency we are going to look at cryptocurrency and or bitcoin in terms of currency to transact. That’s good for business, that’s good for our riders and our eaters,” Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC . “We are just not going to do it as part of a promotion.”

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Khosrowshahi shot down putting bitcoin on the company balance sheet.

“We are going to keep our cash safe,” he said.

Uber has been a member of the Facebook-led stablecoin association Diem since October 2019.

Khosrowshahi’s comments come amid a flurry of activity in recent weeks of public companies exploring the utility of Bitcoin as a payment rail. This week payments giant MasterCard said it would allow merchants on its network to send and receive payments in “select cryptocurrencies.” Tesla also said it plans to accept bitcoin as payment, in addition to a $1.5 billion purchase of the digital currency.

Bitcoin is currently up 5 percent during the Thursday morning U.S. trading day, and is currently trading at $47,500.

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