10.09.2025 05:33
In a notable departure from its historically cautious stance, recent online chatter sparked speculation regarding Apple Inc. (valued at an astonishing $3.55 trillion) potentially venturing into the volatile world of cryptocurrency acquisition. The tech titan has, to date, maintained a clear record of not holding any digital assets on its balance sheet, making these unsubstantiated claims particularly intriguing.
Specifically, on September 9, 2025, a crypto influencer leveraging the platform X (formerly Twitter), known as @Cobb_XRPL and boasting approximately 45,000 followers, disseminated "strong rumors" suggesting an imminent, substantial crypto purchase by Apple, with a pointed emphasis on XRP. This assertion, which echoed an earlier, unverified $1.5 billion acquisition whisper, critically lacked any official corroboration from Apple or reputable news outlets. Financially, considering Apple's robust $55.4 billion in cash reserves as of June 2025, an investment in the range of $1–2 billion would represent a mere sliver of its substantial financial holdings.
The sudden emergence of this XRP-centric narrative immediately met with significant skepticism across the crypto landscape. Numerous internet sources swiftly dismissed the story as "far-fetched," noting that even the initial tweeter later seemed to distance themselves from the very rumors they had propagated. Ultimately, the influencer Cobb himself later trivialized the entire affair, likening the rumors to "ghosts" that simply vanish into thin air, leaving no tangible evidence. To this day, Apple has neither confirmed nor provided any hint regarding a cryptocurrency investment, and no official documents or news wires have ever reported an Apple-XRP transaction.
Apple’s engagement with the cryptocurrency sphere has primarily manifested through its App Store policies, which have undergone a gradual, albeit cautious, evolution. Prior to 2023, the App Store strictly prohibited any in-app purchases of cryptocurrencies. This rigid stance began to soften in July 2023 when Apple quietly rescinded the ban, thereby permitting applications to directly facilitate payments for Bitcoin, NFTs, and other digital currencies.
Further relaxing its guidelines in May 2025, following a significant court ruling, Apple updated its App Store review parameters to allow apps to incorporate external links for NFT and crypto transactions. However, the company's caution persists; it continues to forbid initial coin offerings (ICOs), token giveaways, cryptocurrency mining, and similar crypto-related functionalities within applications. Overall, as various analyses suggest, Apple has exhibited minimal direct interest in the cryptocurrency industry itself, confining its concrete actions to merely easing app-related restrictions rather than directly investing in blockchain tokens, a strategy that sharply contrasts with many public companies, which have largely gravitated towards holding Bitcoin or Ether, not XRP.
