Why X Is Unlikely to Support Crypto Payments

The world’s richest man has made sweeping changes to the social network, including a controversial rebranding to X.

Given Musk’s frequent tweets about Bitcoin and Dogecoin, particularly in 2020 and 2021, there have long been rumors that the entrepreneur might bring crypto payments to the platform.

However, while Musk has been vocal about his desire to make X an “app for everything” and diversify the platform’s revenue, digital assets don’t seem to be on his radar just yet.

As Bloomberg recently reported, X executives told regulators that the company has no plans to allow users to send or receive virtual currencies.

Nima Oji, an app researcher who has been monitoring X’s new features, notes that while users can tip content creators in digital assets, he doesn’t believe cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether will play a significant role in X’s future payments system.

Oji says that if there’s one thing that could be improved, it’s the tipping system, adding support for more altcoins, including DOGE.

“X has added more features in the last two years under Elon Musk than in the entire history of Twitter. In my opinion, it’s good that X teams are actively working to bring new features to the platform,” Oji says.

Oji noted that one of the big changes under Musk’s leadership is that X’s leadership has been more open to user feedback. For example, CEO Linda Yaccarino frequently reads and responds to posts.

“In the Twitter era, no one expected key executives to respond,” he added.

While many are disappointed that cryptocurrency isn’t more prominent on X, Oji noted that other innovations have already benefited the crypto community, with projects able to create dedicated communities for their followers.

When asked about critics who claim that Elon Musk has made X worse by increasing the level of misinformation and hostile content on the platform, Oji responded, “Well, there’s Community Notes to combat that, and frankly, with that feature, there’s less misinformation on X than there is on Facebook.”

Some believe X is making a big mistake by not integrating cryptocurrency, as it could have improved the company’s bottom line.

Bos Sobrado, a London-based fintech researcher and analyst, told Cryptonews that any new payment system should drive ad revenue.

“The Musk controversy has scared off a lot of ad budgets, but overall, brands are focusing on advertising right now, which is directly tied to revenue. Snapchat’s stock price drop is a testament to that,” he explained.

Sobrado believes that one way to win back advertisers is through transaction data, and supporting digital assets could help.

“If they’re going to roll out payments, it would make sense to include cryptocurrency from the start, as it would be immediately useful to X’s global user base. Plus, Musk is known for his support of cryptocurrency and has the resources to overcome regulatory hurdles,” Sobrado said.

According to Business of Apps, X faces significant challenges. Advertising revenue has fallen sharply in recent years, as many major brands don’t want their products associated with posts from people like Andrew Tate. While there has been an increase in users signing up for Premium, which comes with perks like a blue checkmark and longer posts, that doesn’t make up for all the losses.

“X’s leadership under Musk remains contentious and controversial. While it reports an increase in active users, many estimates show X’s revenue declining. While the company’s costs have likely fallen following the cuts, it’s unclear whether these changes are sustainable. “I personally think the quality of the algorithm has deteriorated, but I’m still an active user,” Sobrado said.

Many social networks have tried to integrate payment systems. One of the losers was Facebook, which was forced to abandon plans to launch the digital currency Libra due to harsh criticism from regulators.

American politicians said that the tech giant could not be trusted to manage such a system, especially after a series of scandals. As a result, companies like Visa and Mastercard pulled out of the project, and the assets were sold to Silvergate for $196 million. However, the investment was written off and the project was shut down due to changes in the crypto industry.

A successful example is Telegram, which now offers a variety of mini-apps for crypto payments.