Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the ride-hailing giant is exploring the use of crypto as a payment method, which marks the third time the company has made the claim since 2021.
Speaking Thursday at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco, Khosrowshahi said the company is in the โstudy phaseโ of evaluating stablecoins for operational use.
โI think stablecoins are one of the more interesting instantiations of crypto that have a practical benefit beyond being a store of value,โ Khosrowshahi said.
Uber was an early member of the Diem Association (formerly Libra), joining in 2019 to support Metaโs now-defunct stablecoin initiative aimed at reshaping global payments.
โYou can have your opinions on Bitcoin, itโs a proven commodity, and people differ on where itโs going. But stablecoins seems quite promising, especially for global companies moving money around internationally,โ Khosrowshahi continued on Thursday. โThatโs super interesting to us, and weโre definitely going to take a look.โ
The remarks echo what Khosrowshahi told CNBC in September 2021, when he said Uber would โlook intoโ accepting BTC and other cryptocurrencies as payment.
At the time, he dismissed any plans to put crypto on the companyโs balance sheet, saying, โWe are going to keep our cash safe.โ
Later, in February 2022, Khosrowshahi told Bloomberg that the company would โabsolutelyโ accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment at โsome pointโ in the future, but emphasized that the time wasnโt right yet.
โWeโre having conversations all the time,โ Khosrowshahi said at the time. โAs the exchange mechanism becomes less expensive and becomes more environmentally friendly, I think you will see us leaning into crypto a little bit more.โ
When he made crypto-related comments in 2021, BTC traded flat for the next three months.
However, his February 2022 comments came weeks before the beginning of an industry-shaking major market correction, which kicked off later that spring.
