What are Apple’s cryptocurrency ambitions?

A few weeks ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he personally owns cryptocurrency while mentioning that Apple is looking at it from a technology perspective.

Bradley Chambers for 9to5Mac:

Apple has plans for its retail financial arm. Its Apple Pay service allows people to send money in particular jurisdictions over iMessage. It also has its Apple Wallet app and associated Apple Pay services for mobile payments. Apple wants to grow its services business, and siphoning off banking services is an ideal way to do it. What does this have to do with cryptocurrency?
I believe that Apple will build a Bitcoin wallet directly into Apple Wallet shortly while also allowing for a low-cost way to purchase Bitcoin on iPhone.
If Apple operates as a Bitcoin exchange, they’ll let you buy bitcoin directly in the Apple Wallet app using whatever payment methods you have on file. They’ll allow you to store your holdings in Apple Wallet while Apple itself will retain the keys. It’ll look a lot like what Cash App or Coinbase does, where you can send, receive, and store Bitcoin without needing to store your seed phrase.
If Apple sets up a software wallet directly on iPhone, it’ll likely look similar to BlueWallet, where you take self custody of your Bitcoin with a seed phrase backup. You’ll own the keys to your Bitcoin directly on your iPhone and be responsible for backing up the seed phrase. If Apple goes this route, I suspect they’ll build in an encrypted iCloud backup of your seed phrase.

MacDailyNews Take: Cryptocurrency cries out for exactly what Apple is usually great at delivering: Making what seems complex easy for users.
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