In a conference call that took place on Thursday, Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne retracted a statement he made to the press, including an interview with me on newsBTC, regarding just how his online retail company would handle bitcoin income.
In my interview with Byrne, he told me he would be planning to convert all bitcoin income to fiat currency if the company could not hedge their risk. Things may be changing.
“It’s true at this point — and it was true when I said it — that we’re not holding bitcoin, but I would like to, at this point, retract that,” he said on the call. “It’s not out of the question that we will be holding small amounts of bitcoin.”
Byrne has long denounced the creation of money “at the stroke of a pen”, and sees benefit in the fact that bitcoin is limited to 21 million units. With that, it’s unclear when the retailer will start to hold the digital currency.
Overstock.com’s stock price fell a whopping 22 percent on Thursday to $22.12 per share.
