Is Apple preparing to onboard crypto? Rumours are swirling as Strike CEO Jack Mallers drops hints

Coinhead Rob Badman
Apple crypto strike

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Speculation is rife that Apple is preparing to embrace crypto after various possible hints dropped on Twitter from Jack Mallers, CEO of Bitcoin Lightning Network payments app Strike.

And nope, this is not an April Fool’s joke. (It’d be a pretty ordinary one if it was.)

Rumours regarding Apple and cryptocurrencies have circulated before. Many times, in fact. In terms of corporate adoption of crypto, Apple seems to be the most coveted, judging by various Twitter chatter and YouTuber videos over the past couple of years.

One thing the cryptoverse has been clinging to, is that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has spoken positively about crypto in the past. He’s mentioned that he finds it “interesting”, actually owns some Bitcoin and other assets and thinks “it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio”.

And Apple Pay, the company’s mobile wallet and digital payments app, has also just been integrated by crypto software wallet MetaMask, enabling the buying of crypto through a third-party service called Wyre.

There’s also this, tweeted today by Australian crypto exchange CoinJar, which announced the country’s first cryptocurrency Mastercard in August last year…

But a direct partnership or an official announcement that signifies Apple is embracing the asset class, similar to Tesla’s adoption last year, this is what the industry is really foaming at the mouth for.

Several crypto-media reports have surfaced examining the increasing speculation, and Bloomberg published an article last month titled Apple is Crypto’s Biggest Wildcard. So all of this, including this article, is feeding the rumour mill.

It remains to be seen how much substance there is to it all, but let’s take a look at what’s been stirring the pot just lately…

 

The Jack Mallers tweets

About a week ago, the crypto-friendly US Republican senator Cynthia Lummis reportedly alluded to a big announcement that Mallers would be making in April regarding the Strike app and “their work with the Lightning network”.

And then, on the same day, Mallers tweeted about the keynote address he’ll be delivering at “the biggest Bitcoin conference in history” – Bitcoin 2022 in Miami, which goes for four days beginning on April 6…

Nothing, er, striking, about that, except for the fact Mallers is sporting an old-school Apple cap and flipping the bird to a Chase Bank ATM. Coincidence? A tenuous link? Possibly. But as Bitcoin Archives points out here, it does kinda mirror an old photo of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs doing the same thing to an IBM building.

But wait… there’s more. Including this tweet from the Strike CEO on March 28…

… then some, um… milk-related twittering on March 30…

… which actually ties back to Steve Jobs again…

So, is Mallers merely just a fanboy of Apple, Jobs, milk and that’s all there is to it?

Crypto investors will be hoping it’s all leading to something more than an Apple Tap to Pay integration announcement, as Bitcoin Magazine contributor Level39 suggests in this tweet…

A Bitcoin Miami keynotes address would surely contain something a little more… jaw-dropping, though, judging by last year’s event. Mallers was extremely influential in the El Salvador Bitcoin-adoption bombshell. Hard act to follow, for sure, but the cryptoverse expects…

 

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