This dream, according to experts, may have implications for cryptocurrencies, especially one of the billionaire’s favorite toys: Dogecoin (Dog).
Musk has long talked about creating a so-called Everything app that includes not just social media and messaging, but also the ability to buy things and send money. Given Musk’s long history of dabbling in digital assets, crypto could easily tap into it.
“Elon has a clear affinity for DOGE, probably as part of a joke, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually went through with enabling payments through DOGE,” said Brian D. Evans, CEO and founder of BDE Ventures, a Web3 venture studio and advisory firm.
In January, the Financial Times reported that Musk had asked the company to build payments infrastructure, initially for fiat currencies but later with the ability to add crypto.
Despite flirting with that status during the bull market that ended in 2021, crypto has never gone mainstream. Musk has many rivals, so enabling payments via crypto at X is not guaranteed to move the needle on crypto adoption. However, X (née Twitter) still has millions of users, so its use will be widening.
“I suspect he will integrate other crypto assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum with stablecoins like USDC, but DOGE is part of Elon’s online presence and if he were to launch a crypto payment system on Twitter he would have to include a DOGE function,” he said.
Musk’s vision for the platform, X, dates back to his time at PayPal, which was named after the company merged with Peter Thiel and Max Levine’s company, Confinity. Before the merger, it was called X.com – a URL owned by Musk and redirecting to twitter.com.
As Twitter quietly works on its payments tool, it has already obtained money transmitter licenses in three US states — Michigan, Missouri and New Hampshire — that allow companies to accept and transfer money.
“It’s clear that he’s very interested in turning a rebranded Twitter into a payments giant, so it’s only natural that he’d explore including crypto in this effort,” said Philip Schumacher, executive director of Identity.com, a nonprofit that provides decentralized identity verification. “If done right, Twitter could become the go-to platform for payments in general, whether that involves traditional fintech applications or blockchains like Ethereum and Solana.”
“If we consider Musk’s vision of making everything app, integrating cryptocurrency payments as part of that ecosystem will be an absolute game changer,” said Raluca Cherciu, co-founder and CEO of Unpaired., an online community that explores how emerging technologies can foster real-world connection. “Not only does this resonate with the very active crypto community on Twitter, but it also resonates with Musk’s known fascination with the cryptosphere.”