After surpassing $40,000 U.S., the price of Bitcoin tumbled after online retailer Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) denied that its job posting for a digital currency executive meant that it will soon accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.
Earlier Monday, the job posting from the retail giant seeking an executive to develop the company’s “digital currency and blockchain strategy” had raised questions among analysts over whether the move could eventually lead to Amazon accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment.
After stock markets closed Monday (July 26), an Amazon spokesperson publicly denied that the company will accept cryptocurrencies for payment, sending the price of Bitcoin down to $37,598 U.S. after it had topped $40,000 U.S. earlier in the day.
The price of Bitcoin had risen more than 17% on Monday to a peak of $40,545 U.S., its highest level since June 15. More than $950 million U.S. of cryptocurrency shorts were liquidated on Monday, the most since May 19, according to data from Bybt.com.
Separately, media reports surfaced that a U.S. probe into Tether is focusing on whether executives behind the digital token committed bank fraud.
Ethereum gained as much as 12% on Monday before dropping back to a gain of almost 6% ahead of an upgrade due on August 4 that will reduce the amount of outstanding tokens by destroying some of them every time it’s used to fuel transactions on the world’s most widely used blockchain.
