Elon Musk has always planned for X, formerly known as Twitter, to be an app that can do everything. Although his previous actions have taken that goal a few steps back instead of forward, he has done a few things right along the way, including getting a license so the platform can deal in crypto.
Crypto Transactions on X
X users in the US can start using crypto to pay and trade on the platform. The company has acquired a license to make it possible just this August 28th. According to data from NMLS, the license is called the Rhode Island Currency Transmitter License.
Musk had already been planning it from the beginning when he acquired the company for $44 billion. Around April 2023, the platform introduced the option for users to purchase stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other financial assets through the platform.
As mentioned in Interesting Engineering, the company partnered with eToro, a social trading firm that allows customers to buy and sell financial assets including index funds. X's "cashtags" were already popular as it lets users see trading data in real time.
Powered by the API from Trading View, X can be used to tackle a bigger number of assets and instruments. According to reports, the social media platform has an average of 4.7 million cashtag searches in the year 2023 alone.
It was easy to introduce cryptocurrency features on the site, considering that it was announced that users could use Bitcoin to tip even before the Tesla CEO acquired the company. Musk already supports currencies like Dogecoin, so X was bound to get the feature.
Twitter Changes Under Musk
There have been a lot of changes since Musk acquired the company. A lot of them have been controversial, which resulted in backlash and even negative impacts on the platform. While some decisions were arguably wrong, there have been positive changes.
For one, X has become a benevolent platform as it shares its ad revenue with content creators on the site. Granted that the user is using a verified account, the earnings from an ad posted in their reply threads will be shared with them, as reported by The Verge.
Of course, not all content creators are eligible for the opportunity to earn. Aside from subscribing to X Blue, they will also have to reach certain metrics. The account needs to have a minimum of five million impressions first in the span of three months.
Sadly, the ad sales sharing came at a time when several big advertisers had already left the platform. Due to issues with moderation, advertisers are concerned about the kind of content that their products will be shown with or adjacent to.
X is attempting to fix that by providing tools that let clients decide how to filter posts that appear alongside their ads. In addition to that, the company is also giving away $250 in ad credits that advertisers can use, but only if they've already spent at least $1,000 in ads.
