The Meitu app interface is displayed on a mobile phone in Yichang, Hubei Province, Central China on February 22, 2021.
Costfoto | Barcroft Media | Getty Images
Meitu, a Chinese company that makes a photo editing app, has bought bitcoins and ether, becoming the latest company to buy cryptocurrencies.
The Hong Kong-listed company said Sunday it bought $ 22.1 million in ether and $ 17.9 million in bitcoins on March 5th.
Meitu follows electric vehicle company Tesla and Square in buying bitcoins. But it looks like the Chinese app maker is the first major company to buy ether, a cryptocurrency that runs on the ether blockchain.
Bitcoin is based on its own blockchain, the technology that underpins it.
Ethereum is a completely different network. It is an open source blockchain that allows developers to build applications on top of it. The cryptocurrency ether can be used to pay for or interact with services built on top of the ethereum network. They are often called decentralized applications or dApps.
Meitu said in a statement that “blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt both existing financial and technology industries, similar to the way mobile Internet has disrupted PC Internet and many other offline industries.”
“The Board believes that cryptocurrencies have a wide margin to appreciate value and, by allocating part of their cash treasury, can also serve as diversification to keep cash (which is subject to amortization pressure due to aggressive increases from the money supply of central banks globally) to treasury management, ”Meitu said.
The move demonstrates to investors that Meitu “has the vision and determination to embrace technological evolution and therefore prepares its foray into the blockchain industry,” Meitu said.
Meitu shares were 3.3% higher at 1:44 p.m., Hong Kong time, after appearing more than 14% earlier in the day.
Meitu noted that cryptocurrency prices “are still very volatile.”
The company said it is “evaluating the feasibility of integrating blockchain technologies into its various overseas companies,” potentially including launching ethereum-based applications or investing in other blockchain companies.