Elon Musk’s Twitter Working On Crypto Payments, Files For Licenses In The US: FT

Summary:

• Twitter recently started applying for payment licenses in the U.S., the Financial Times reported.
• Musk charged Esther Crawford to oversee Twitter Payments, the division building technology to bring crypto and fiat payments to the social network.
• Binance CEO Changpeng opined that Elon’s social media giant should onboard several blockchains and cryptos, not just BNB and Dogecoin.

Twitter has started applying for licenses in the United States to allow the social media juggernaut to support digital payments, in line with Elon Musk’s vision for the company. The Financial Times reported that the move could also generate revenue streams for Musk’s social network and help the billionaire to strengthen the balance sheet after advertising revenue slumped last year. 

Elon’s company filed for a payment processor license with the U.S. Treasury in November. The social network also has eyes on regulatory clearance from several State agencies.

To build out the necessary technology for such an endeavor, Musk named a new CEO of Twitter payments – Esther Crawford. Crawford’s division is already working on a vault system to house and secure user data.

Currently, the primary focus revolves around enabling fiat payments. However, Musk also wants crypto functionality to be added to the payment system, per reports. Elon’s plan for payments forms a piece of a master plan to launch a super app. This app would combine commerce, social media, and payments.

Crytpo Twitter Eager For Payments

Crypto users have long awaited digital asset payment of the platform for some time now. The platform already supports Bitcoin tips via the Lightning network, Ethereum tips, and NFT avatars for Blue subscribers. Engineers are also working on an NFT Tile feature to allow digital collectible trading on the timeline.

Anticipation for crypto payments intensified after Musk took over the company for $44 billion in October 2022. Filing for the acquisition also revealed that a plethora of blockchain entities like Binance chipped in equity to bootstrap Elon’s massive takeover.

After the acquisition was finalized, Binance CEO noted that his company is ready to provide blockchain support for Elon’s crypto payments vision on the social platform. CZ added that Twitter should onboard multiple blockchains and digital assets, and not just BNB and Dogecoin.