Why Crypto Payments on X Look Unlikely
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It’s been almost two years since Elon Musk acquired Twitter.
The world’s richest man has made sweeping changes to the social network — including a controversial rebrand to X.
Given Musk’s repeated tweets about Bitcoin and Dogecoin, especially in 2020 and 2021, there has long been speculation that the entrepreneur might bring crypto payments to the site.
But although he’s clearly stated that he wants X to become an “everything app,” and diversify the platform’s revenues, it doesn’t look like digital assets are part of the picture.
Bloomberg recently reported that X executives have told regulators that the company has no intent to enable its users to send and receive virtual currencies.
App researcher Nima Owji has long monitored upcoming features being rolled out on X, sharing screenshots whenever new functionality is about to launch.
He told Cryptonews that while it’s possible to tip content creators using digital assets, he doesn’t believe the likes of Bitcoin and Ether will play a wider role in X’s upcoming payments system.
If anything, Owji wants to see improvements to the tipping service — primarily by supporting a broader range of altcoins, including DOGE.
“X has added more features in the past two years under Elon Musk’s leadership than in the whole history of Twitter. In my opinion, it’s good to see that the teams at X are working hard to bring new features to this platform,” he said.
Owji argued that a big change under Musk’s leadership is that X executives are now much more receptive to feedback from users — with the likes of CEO Linda Yaccarino reading posts and replying to them on a regular basis.
“You wouldn’t expect a reply from key executives in the Twitter era,” he added.
And while there might be disappointment that crypto isn’t getting more prominence on X, Owji pointed out that other features have benefitted the industry — with projects now able to launch dedicated communities for their followers.
When asked about critics who claim that Elon Musk has made X worse, with rising levels of misinformation and hateful content on the platform, Owji said: “Well, Community Notes is here to fight that, and to be honest, with this feature, there’s less misinformation here than on Facebook.”
A Missed Opportunity?
There are some who believe X is making a big mistake by failing to embrace crypto, as it could boost the company’s performance.
Boaz Sobrado, a London-based fintech researcher and commentator, told Cryptonews that any new payments service would need to drive advertising revenue as well.
“Musk’s controversies have scared away a lot of ad dollars, but brand spend in general is down with advertisers focusing on ad spend that can be directly attributed to revenue. Snapchat’s falling share price is evidence of this,” he explained.
Sobrado says that one way of winning back advertisers is transaction data — and support for digital assets would help.
“If they are going to do payments, it would make sense to include crypto payments from day one as it would immediately be valuable for X’s globally distributed base. Moreover, Musk is a well-known crypto advocate and has the resources to overcome the regulatory barriers this would present,” Sobrado said.
Figures from the Business of Apps underline the challenges that X faces. Advertising revenue has fallen precipitously in recent years, with many major brands reluctant for their products to appear alongside posts from the likes of Andrew Tate. While there has been a rise in the number of users taking out Premium subscriptions — with perks including a blue checkmark, longer posts, and revenue shares — this hasn’t covered the shortfall.
“Musk’s X leadership has been controversial and ambivalent for now,” Sobrado said. “He’s reported growing DAU numbers, but many estimates for X’s revenue show a decreasing trend. Costs are almost definitely down after their layoffs, but whether that is sustainable remains to be seen. In my personal view, the algorithm has definitely suffered in terms of quality, but I am still an avid user.”
A Challenging Landscape
Many social networks have tried to integrate payments systems into their infrastructure. One famous casualty was Facebook, which had to abandon plans to launch a digital currency called Libra after an almighty backlash from regulators.
American politicians had argued that the tech giant couldn’t be trusted to operate such a service following a slew of controversies — and eventually, backing from the likes of Visa and Mastercard fell away. Assets were later sold on to Silvergate for $196 million in the hope that the project would survive, but the investment was eventually written off and abandoned — with “significant changes in the digital asset industry landscape” blamed.
By contrast, one notable success story when it comes to crypto payments has been Telegram, which now offers a constellation of mini-apps.
The app had initially sought to launch the Telegram Open Network blockchain on its own, but those plans were hastily abandoned following a blowback with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Layer 1 network subsequently became independent and was rebranded as The Open Network, with Toncoin becoming one of the biggest cryptocurrencies in the world based on market capitalization.
Musk’s long-awaited payments system on X may lack crypto for now, but there’s no reason why it won’t in the future. We’ve already seen PayPal warm toward digital assets, with Visa dabbling on the Ethereum blockchain and Mastercard offering a slew of crypto debit cards.
And who knows: with Donald Trump now rolling out his own crypto venture, the world’s most unpredictable entrepreneur could end up having a change of heart.
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