A new Apple job ad might be looking for some cryptocurrency expertise.
A Financial Times (FT) report says that the iPhone maker is looking for new talent for its payments division and is looking for a business development manager for alternative payments.
According to the job ad, the eventual employee will work on the same team as the Apple Pay and iPhone Wallet app, at the Cupertino Headquarters.
They’ll be in charge of new alliances with “strategic alternative payment partners.” Some of the qualifications for the new job will include several years’ experience working with crypto along with other forms of payment such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services. Apple is looking at the prospective hire as it looks to make payments using bitcoin available for its Wallet app, which is the central place for digital payments on the iPhone.
The job posting quickly became a lightning rod for crypto enthusiasts who have seen it as a sign that one of the biggest tech companies is ready to move more into crypto.
RBC Capital Markets analysts has said that Apple is currently primed to work in crypto, with opportunities to make it easier and safer to buy and sell digital assets.
That said, Apple has faced criticism before for refusing to support bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies through Apple Pay or the App Store, including its 2013 ban of crypto wallets from the iPhone — though it did later go back on that policy.
The cryptocurrency markets have been tumultuous as of late, with the tweets of Elon Musk contributing to that when he initially said early in May that Tesla would not be taking cryptocurrency payments.
But he reversed course later, tweeting that he did support crypto.
May 20 was what PYMNTS called an exceptionally volatile day for cryptocurrencies, with several agencies looking at forming an “interagency policy sprint team” to analyze crypto.
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