Wall Street analysts have understood executives of other high-profile companies about possible bitcoin raids during recent earnings conference calls.
“We don’t plan to invest in bitcoins, so we’ll stop here,” he said in response to a question from Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas.
But he did not rule out the possibility that customers may one day buy Chevrolets, Buicks or Cadilllacs with cryptocurrency, just as Tesla plans to let customers use Bitcoin to buy their electric cars and trucks.
“This is something we will monitor and evaluate. And if there is strong customer demand in the future, there is nothing stopping us from doing so,” Barra added.
But executives at other companies, especially financial corporations, are not convinced that Bitcoin should be part of their cash management strategies.
“I understand that currently accounting is different from other currencies and can create more volatility,” he added.
Volatility is an issue. Large price changes will likely prevent other major companies from putting corporate money into bitcoin.
Of course, the yields have been huge until late. But companies want the stability of their corporate investments, not an asset that has gone from a low of just over $ 4,000 to nearly $ 50,000 last year.
Making the leap from cryptography
Other companies are willing to take the risk.
But it differentiated between assets like bitcoin and so-called stable currencies that are backed by existing government currencies. Kelly said bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are more like “digital gold.”
“At this time they are held primarily as assets that are not used significantly as a form of payment,” Kelly said, adding that “fiat-guaranteed digital currencies, including stable currencies and digital currencies central bank … they are an emerging payments innovation that could have the potential to be used for global trade. ”
In other words, buying Tesla may lead more companies to consider buying bitcoins, but a lot of support is unlikely to be created yet.
The biggest wildcard
RBC analyst Mitch Steves said in a report earlier this month that if Apple decided to set up its own cryptocurrency exchange business (potentially through its Apple Wallet feature), Apple could win immediately market share and alter the industry “.
Based on the amount of money Square gets from bitcoin-related revenue, Steves estimates that Apple could generate more than $ 40 billion in bitcoin-related revenue.
He also noted that Apple could fund any bitcoin exchange plan by adding about $ 1 billion to its balance sheet, saying an Apple purchase of bitcoins would help validate it and that “the price of the underlying asset would rise from substantially. “
Apple has not publicly debated any plans to invest in bitcoin and the company did not respond to requests for comment.