Signs Crop Up That Apple Is Exploring Cryptocurrency: What You Need To Know

Apple Inc AAPL  is on the hunt for a business development manager with experience in "cryptocurrency" to lead alternative payments partnerships, as per a job posting on its website.

What Happened: “The Apple Wallets, Payments, and Commerce (WPC) team is seeking an experienced Business Development Manager to lead Alternative Payments Partnerships,” Apple wrote in the listing. The iPhone maker called for candidates with "5+ years experience working in or with alternative payment providers, such as digital wallets, BNPL, Fast Payments, cryptocurrency."

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The vacancy listed Wednesday mentions duties such as “forming partnership framework and commercial models, defining implementation paradigms, identifying key players and managing relationships with strategic alternative payment partners.”

The person Apple is looking to hire for its Cupertino, California headquarters would be responsible for “end to end business development,” which involves negotiating and closing commercial agreements.

Why It Matters: Apple has yet to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment and has tight control over payments.

The Tim Cook-led tech giant is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with “Fortnite” maker Epic Games over in-app payments.

See Also: Microsoft Refuses To Hold Back As Apple Accuses It Of Using Epic As 'Staking Horse' In Legal Battle

In February, an analyst at RBC said that if the iPhone maker were to develop its Apple Wallet into a cryptocurrency exchange it would have a sizable new market opportunity in the billions.

The analyst pointed to Square Inc SQ and Paypal Holdings Inc PYPL along with Coinbase Global Inc COIN which have validated the business model.

Price Action: On Wednesday, Apple shares closed mostly unchanged at $126.85 and fell 0.12% in the after-hours session. Bitcoin (BTC) traded 0.96% lower at $38,332.92 at press time.

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