Elon Musk, the tech tycoon, has dismissed the opportunity of launching a proprietary cryptocurrency token for Twitter or the ‘X’ platform. This assertion was not a part of an official announcement, however somewhat a response to a consumer’s put up on Twitter.

A Twitter consumer, @DogeDesigner, who has beforehand interacted with each Musk and Linda Yaccarino, the present CEO of ‘X’, warned that neither Musk nor ‘X’ had launched any crypto tokens. This warning got here in a tweet accompanied by headlines from information articles wrongly stating that such a launch had occurred. Musk’s retort was easy and unequivocal, “And we by no means will.”

And we by no means will

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 5, 2023

Although this declaration is a particular rebuff to the thought of a cryptocurrency endorsed by Twitter, particularly amidst an intense rebranding course of, it doesn’t unequivocally reject the notion of future ‘X’ app functionalities related to cryptocurrencies. Musk’s previous affiliations with digital property additionally forged a shadow of uncertainty.

Musk’s enthusiasm for Dogecoin (DOGE), a memecoin established initially as a humorous nod to the customarily severe crypto group, is not any secret. The billionaire acquired Twitter for $44 billion final yr and promptly changed its famed blue-bird brand with the Shiba Inu canine picture synonymous with Dogecoin, a transfer that triggered the token’s worth to leap by 20% and provoked a $258 billion lawsuit in opposition to Musk for alleged insider buying and selling and racketeering.

Regardless of his seemingly contradictory actions in the direction of the crypto group through the years, together with his collaboration with Doge builders to create an eco-friendly, reasonably priced different to Bitcoin, Musk’s definitive rejection of a TwitterCoin or XCoin leaves the door ajar for potential future cryptocurrency involvements.

“Undertaking X” Goes Approach Again

Beforehand we’ve got reported on the ‘X’ undertaking, that it has at all times held a particular place in Musk’s ambitions. He revealed within the earlier yr that he has an expansive imaginative and prescient for X.com or X Company, though he didn’t elaborate on this grand imaginative and prescient. He urged throughout Tesla’s annual shareholder assembly that Twitter may expedite the belief of this imaginative and prescient by three to 5 years.

Within the period of the preliminary dotcom bubble round 1999, Musk co-established one of many first web banks, the unique X.com. His preliminary enterprise, Zip2 – a listing of native companies – had just lately been bought by Compaq for over $300 million, turning Musk right into a multimillionaire. Musk invested nearly all of his after-tax earnings from the Zip2 sale, about $12 million, into X.com, foreseeing its evolution right into a complete monetary companies platform.

the core hub the place all transactions occur

The unique X.com merged with its competitor, Confinity, in 2000 and adjusted its title to PayPal the next yr. After eBay bought it in 2002 for $1.5 billion, Musk obtained a major windfall of roughly $180 million, which he used to put money into the electrical car startup, Tesla, and to arrange SpaceX, his rocket firm.

Musk has at all times maintained that X.com had the potential to function “the core hub the place all transactions occur”. He even advised his biographer, Ashlee Vance, that he had contemplated reacquiring PayPal.

Musk’s ambition to remodel Twitter and X.com right into a funds ‘super-app’ exceeds PayPal’s latest aggressive development technique. In an investor pitch deck earlier this yr, Musk outlined a plan for Twitter that concerned enabling peer-to-peer funds akin to PayPal and shifting in the direction of a subscription-based mannequin somewhat than counting on ads. By 2028, he projected over 100 million customers can be subscribing to ‘X’.

Relating to the prospect of enabling crypto funds, Musk disclosed in an investor pitch deck that he goals to generate about $1.3 billion in funds income from Twitter by 2028. Nonetheless, consultants have questioned Twitter’s capability to compete successfully, significantly within the US market, which is dominated by highly effective rivals like Venmo, Money App, and Zelle. Moreover, Twitter’s entrance into the funds trade is anticipated to draw vital regulatory scrutiny, particularly given Musk’s controversial determination to chop over half of the platform’s workers, which has raised questions in regards to the platform’s skill to satisfy compliance necessities.

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