
Elon Musk’s Stake in Twitter: Possible Ripple Effects in Crypto
Elon Musk and his power on the crypto market can hardly be demonstrated with Twitter
Call it to venture or adventure, the irrepressible Elon Musk is at it again! This time he has staked his claim on Twitter. He is now the largest stakeholder of one of the world’s leading social media companies, with a 9.2 percent stake. The cryptocurrency market has responded very well by shooting Twitter’s share. He is also one of the popular crypto influencers who possess control of the price of cryptocurrencies with these cryptic tweets. There are many questions raised about Elon Musk’s future plan with Twitter, including the speculations about whether he would buy more shares or in what position exactly he would participate in the affairs of Twitter. Leaving aside those questions, we can delve into another issue of much importance with regard to the functional dynamics of the social media giant. What do Musk’s grand entry and investment mean for Twitter’s possible role in the world of crypto and in the global highly volatile crypto market?
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Except for a single instance of slight departure, that too for a very short time, Elon Musk has generally displayed enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies. Tesla’s acceptance of crypto is the most evident proof of this. As for Twitter, as part of its elaborate plan for crypto, it has recently announced the arrival of Twitter Crypto, the unit which is to be engaged in developing its strategies for cryptocurrencies, blockchains, and so forth. A Twitter top official belonging to this specific business unit explains that the social network’s mission is to see what crypto can do for Twitter, and Twitter can do for crypto. Twitter’s crypto mission also includes a deeper exploration of Web3 decentralized technology to manage virtual goods and currencies and support the work of crypto communities. The overall goal is to “push the boundaries of what’s possible with identity, community, ownership and more” — with Twitter Crypto thriving to establish itself as a “center for excellence”. Indeed, Twitter is ready to take up the unexplored challenges of the crypto world in more ways than one.
Under the able leadership of Tess Rinearson, Esther Crawford, and CEO Parag Agarwal, foremost experts and administrators of the crypto world, and a team of high professionals, Twitter is poised to move ahead in the crypto world, with some of the best minds. In a significant development, Twitter in late 2021 has included crypto as a payment option in its tipping feature, called Tips. Tips are aimed to roll out to everyone with more payment options to choose from. With this move, people can now seamlessly tip with Bitcoin using a payments application called Strike, built on the Bitcoin Lightning Network that allows people to send and receive Bitcoin. Strike, the claim goes, offers instant and free payments globally. This is going to have much impact on the investment scenario because people with a Strike account can use any Bitcoin Lightning wallet to send tips to someone’s Strike account. This, Twitter points out, will encourage more people to participate in the economy and help them to send each other money across borders and with as little friction as possible. In January, Twitter also permitted subscribers of its premium service, Twitter Blue, to flaunt their NFTs as hexagonal profile pictures.
Elon Musk’s stake in Twitter may serve at least on several counts. It may lead to content moderation. It may facilitate the social media company to free itself from crypto scammers and phishing activities. It may also go a long way to intensify the already initiated crypto features and functions. It is only the ‘morning’ in terms of Twitter’s foray into the cryptocurrency market, but judging by the acts undertaken, the morning shows the day.