Why Elon Musk wants to bring crypto to X

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it to X, the 52-year-old has perpetually been at the centre of the news cycle for his various business decisions.

From removing the verified feature to banning the term “cisgender” on the platform, he’s been an interesting owner of the social media platform.

Musk has previously stated his desire to have X become an “everything app”, but what does this mean? And where does cryptocurrency fit into this plan?

X payments chief information security officer, Christopher Stanley, recently wrote on the platform: “The end goal is if you ever have any incentive to take money out of our system, then we have failed, you shouldn’t ever need to take money out because you should be able to do anything you need on our platform.”

Stanley made the post after X acquired money-transmitter licenses in some US states, allowing the app to facilitate US dollar and crypto payments.

“Think Venmo at first,” Stanley wrote. “Then, as things evolve, you can gain interest, buy products, eventually use it to buy things in stores (think Apple Pay), etc.”

Since Musk took over the platform, there has been speculation on whether he would try to integrate cryptocurrency into the platform and it appears the answer is yes.

Musk has offered a few reasons for this.

To begin with, if X wants to incorporate the use of money on its platform, Musk wants this to include cryptocurrency, rather than just flat money, like US dollars.

In October, Musk said: “If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever.”

Musk has also stated that he wants X to become an “updated version” of PayPal, although PayPal already supports cryptocurrency, rolling out support for bitcoin, ethereum, lite coin and bitcoin cash in 2020.

The CEO of Tesla also recently made it possible to purchase Tesla vehicles with the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, and in America it’s possible to buy a Tesla with bitcoin, so it makes sense that he would incorporate his other products to support crypto.

Additionally, Musk has helped surge the price of Dogecoin, alongside other cryptocurrencies, since he teased crypto integration.

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