Elon Musk’s Twitter X will launch payment services around mid-2024; however, cryptocurrency integration is still a mystery.
During an online Q&A with Cathie Wood of ARK Invest on X on December 21, Elon Musk expressed hope to complete all necessary legal procedures to launch payment services in time next year. The billionaire appeared confident that they would obtain the necessary licenses, although the company has been a bit late in submitting the required documentation.
As of August 2023, Twitter gained the license for payment processing in Rhode Island (USA) and is still waiting for approval from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri and New Hampshire. This is considered a necessary condition for X to be able to accept payments, store and trade cryptocurrencies.
Before changing its name, Twitter had made many moves to welcome crypto such as integrating Bitcoin/Ethereum wallets, supporting setting avatars with NFTs. There were even rumors that it would create its own currency called Twitter Coin and build its own wallet. When Elon Musk took over, the crypto community once again expected to find their favorite coins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Bitcoin (BTC) in X’s new payment system.
However, Elon Musk never confirmed that he would integrate crypto into his new social network. Recently, he even confirmed that X will not issue its own token. Some people also think that X will use DOGE as the main currency, so there is no need to launch new tokens.
On the other hand, Tesla is still holding $184 million in Bitcoin (BTC) on its balance sheet for the past 5 consecutive quarters. The electric car company has long allowed customers to pay with Dogecoin when shopping at the Tesla Shop. Musk once said that he imagines money and digital assets as a database for resource allocation. According to Elon Musk, fiat currency is “actually fine” so long as state actors don’t try to debase the currency by manipulating its supply.