In a surprising turn of events, the world’s top eCommerce platform, Amazon, announced plans to accept crypto payments.
The company, which up until recently had distanced itself from the world of virtual currencies, made the staggering announcement on Twitter and immediately received thousands of retweets.
The news was met with enthusiasm from crypto users and concern from environmentalists around the world.
Twitter user @Bitcoin4Lifez144 said, “This is the dawn of a new era for the wonderful world of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin will replace the dollar within 12 months—you heard it here first.”
Another user, @BitcoinMustBeStopped opined, “Today is the beginning of the end. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are extremely harmful to the environment and Amazon is perpetuating this process by normalizing crypto. Amazon just lost a long-time customer. Bye”
The company stated that Bitcoin, Shiba Inu, and Dogecoin will be the first cryptocurrencies to be supported with “more on the way, soon”.
At the time of writing, cryptocurrencies did not appear as a payment option on Amazon, however.
NFT Integration Coming Soon
In the series of tweets, the company also revealed plans to integrate non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a bid to capitalize on the booming trend.
The company announced that CEO Jeff Bezos had been keeping a close eye on the crypto industry and felt as though today was the ideal time to get involved.
While Bezos did not disclose whether he had made personal investments in the crypto industry, the move by Amazon is a clear indication of crypto’s increasing popularity and legitimacy.
Rival platform eBay added NFT support early last year but has been unable to compete with OpenSea, which remains the world’s top NFT marketplace.
At the time of writing, the crypto markets were up a resounding 0% for the day.
P.S. April Fools! If this article caught you out, share it with your friends to fool them as well!
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