Uber Is Once Again Considering Crypto Payments, Years After Mulling BTC as Payment Method

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 at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Khosrowshahi said the company is in the “study phase” of evaluating stablecoins for operational use.

“I think stablecoins are one of the more interesting instantiations of crypto that have a practical benefit beyond being a store of value,” Khosrowshahi said.

Uber was an early member of the Diem Association (formerly Libra), joining in 2019 to support Meta’s now-defunct stablecoin initiative aimed at reshaping global payments.

“You can have your opinions on Bitcoin, it’s a proven commodity, and people differ on where it’s going. But stablecoins seems quite promising, especially for global companies moving money around internationally,” Khosrowshahi continued on Thursday. “That’s super interesting to us, and we’re definitely going to take a look.”

The remarks echo what Khosrowshahi told CNBC in September 2021, when he said Uber would “look into” accepting BTC and other cryptocurrencies as payment.

At the time, he dismissed any plans to put crypto on the company’s balance sheet, saying, “We are going to keep our cash safe.”

Later, in February 2022, Khosrowshahi told Bloomberg that the company would “absolutely” accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment at “some point” in the future, but emphasized that the time wasn’t right yet.

“We’re having conversations all the time,” Khosrowshahi said at the time. “As the exchange mechanism becomes less expensive and becomes more environmentally friendly, I think you will see us leaning into crypto a little bit more.”

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.