The head of the world’s leading rideshare company says it’s likely they’ll accept cryptocurrencies as payments down the road.
In a new Bloomberg interview, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tells host Emily Chang that two big factors are preventing him from approving digital assets to cover the cost of fares and food delivery.
“It definitely could [happen]. We’re having conversations all the time.
I think right now what we see with Bitcoin and some of the other cryptos, they are quite valuable as a store-of-value [but] the exchange mechanism is expensive. It’s not great for the environment.”
Khosrowshahi also says that cheaper and greener crypto transactions could drive Uber to closely consider digital assets for payments.
“As the exchange mechanism becomes less expensive, becomes more environmentally friendly, I think you will see [Uber] lean into crypto a little bit more. We’re absolutely watching it. Is Uber going to accept cryptocurrency in the future? Absolutely, at some point.”
Exactly one year ago, Khosrowshahi said he had no plans to follow other companies like Tesla which converted some of their cash holdings into Bitcoin (BTC). He did leave open the possibility of accepting crypto assets when paying for Uber and Uber Eats.
Khosrowshahi was previously the CEO of travel booking site Expedia from 2005 to 2017.
In 2014, Expedia became one of the first businesses to accept Bitcoin after partnering with Coinbase to handle the payment processing.
Bitcoin is down 3.12% at time of writing to $42,330.
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