2 - 3 minute read
Andy Yen, the CEO of encrypted email app ProtonMail, has expressed uncertainty about whether his company will continue to hold Bitcoin in an interview with Forbes. ProtonMail has accepted Bitcoin as a payment method for at least five years and has confirmed that it has held Bitcoin received from customers since 2019.
However, Yen expressed concerns about fraud, scams, and short-lived trends in the cryptocurrency market, citing examples such as the recent NFT bubble and the 2017 ICO craze. He also argued that regular market spikes and crashes every three to four years, which he referred to as “80% crash cycles,” damage trust and confidence in the asset class.
In order to address these issues, Yen called for stronger self-regulation within the cryptocurrency sector and opposed regulation by lawmakers. He also suggested that the crash cycles need to become less severe over time in order to establish more trust in the asset class.
Despite these concerns, ProtonMail will reportedly continue to accept Bitcoin as a payment method and is in the process of adding Lightning Network payments. There were rumors in 2018 that the company was planning to issue its own token through an initial coin offering, but these were denied by the company.
