Palantir Technologies is now accepting Bitcoin as payment for its services and is planning to hold the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet
Data analytics company Palantir Technologies has started accepting Bitcoin (BTC) for payment of its services. The tech company, owned by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, announced this during a Q1 earnings call yesterday.
The company builds software that allows firms and organisations to integrate their data, decisions, and operations into a single platform. It provides these services to numerous clients in various parts of the world.
This latest development makes the New York Stock Exchange-listed company the latest corporate entity to accept BTC as a payment option. Elon Musk’s Tesla is another heavyweight in the corporate world that has recently begun accepting BTC for payment for its electric vehicles.
Palantir Technologies is also considering adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet. The data analytics firm revealed during the earnings call that it is looking at the option of holding some of its cash reserves in BTC. If this happened, Palantir would become one of a small but growing group of publicly-listed companies that hold BTC in their corporate treasuries. It would join the likes of Tesla, MicroStrategy, Meitu, and Square, who have the leading cryptocurrency on their balance sheet.
Peter Thiel’s other leading companies, PayPal and Venmo, have already begun offering cryptocurrency services to their clients. Palantir’s adoption comes at a time when the leading cryptocurrency has struggled to reach the $60k mark.
Bitcoin has been trading below $60k for the past few days. Its rally has cooled down since it hit its all-time high price above $64,000. Despite this, retail and institutional investors are still trooping into the cryptocurrency market.
Tesla still holds nearly $2.5 billion in Bitcoin, while MicroStrategy continues to constantly accumulate BTC. Bitcoin is still up by nearly 100% since the start of the year, but it is currently being outperformed by the likes of Ether and Dogecoin.