Will Elon Musk Add Dogecoin to Twitter?

Elon Musk, the new face behind Twitter, has recently filed a Money Service Business license with the US Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The move has sparked rumors of Musk reigniting his passion for Dogecoin by adding it as a currency to the popular social media platform.

Dogecoin is seen as the altcoin of all altcoins. The cryptocurrency might not be the market’s first altcoin, but it is definitely one of its most important ones. Why? Because Dogecoin historically marks the start of altcoin bull runs. Whenever Bitcoin stalled and the altcoin market was going for a boom, Dogecoin was there to ignite the fuse. 

Today’s article discusses the possibility of Elon Musk adding Dogecoin as Twitter’s payment solution. You will learn everything there is to know about the eccentric billionaire and his plans for making Twitter more decentralized than ever before. But first, let’s take a quick walk down memory lane and see what Dogecoin is really all about.

What Is Dogecoin?

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that started as a meme. A developer from Oregon called Billy Markus decided to create a cryptocurrency based on the ‘Doge’ meme back in 2013 in hopes of attracting more internet users to Bitcoin. Markus launched the cryptocurrency by partnering with Adobe employee Jackson Palmer, calling it an “open-source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency.”

Dogecoin was simply a joke during its initial few years. But shortly enough, the internet decided to adopt it as a sort of “cryptocurrency of the internet, by the internet.” Multiple websites went on to integrate Dogecoin, including Reddit which created a tipping system using DOGE. 

There was nothing much going on for Doge development-wise. It was simply a meme cryptocurrency that investors could speculate against. And speculate they did.

Tik Tok users sparked a massive Doge bull run in mid 2020 in hopes of getting rich quickly. This was followed by Elon Musk heavily promoting the cryptocurrency on Twitter. Musk decided to spread the word of Doge using his influential online presence. He called himself the “CEO of Dogecoin” and went on to make a series of tweets talking positively about the project. 

No one could have expected what happened next. The cryptocurrency started a bull run of its own, increasing 22,000% in value over the course of six months. Investors collectively chanted “Doge to $1” hoping that the asset might win against all odds. And although Doge only saw an all-time-high of $0.73, the growth was enough to outperform every other altcoin. 

What Dogecoin saw was a massive speculative bubble that took place with the help of Elon Musk, Tiktok investors, and Crypto Twitter. Dogecoin itself is nothing special and shares many of its traits with Bitcoin and Litecoin. In fact, many were reluctant to invest in the altcoin given that it has a massive token supply. But despite it, the project still succeeded. 

Learn more about Dogecoin here!

Elon Musk Acquires Twitter: How Will the Social Network Change?

After months of negotiations, Elon Musk has finally decided to acquire Twitter for a small sum of $54 billion on October 28th. Musk took Twitter private in hopes of making massive changes that couldn’t be otherwise made if he were simply a board member. He fired a large portion of the company’s staff and announced significant changes to the platform’s business model.

But as ambitious as Musk seems, it appears that this is the mere beginning of something far greater than anyone could have predicted. The billionaire seeks to develop Twitter into a super app mysteriously called ‘X.’ The app would represent the western version of China’s WeChat - an ‘everything app’ that supports messaging, video chats, streaming, and payments. 

Elon Musk tweeted that “buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X.” This statement was followed by Musk officially filing a payments license to the U.S. FinCEN. Musk hopes that users could in the future send money to other people on the platform and even withdraw that money to a bank account. 

The move to add payments to Twitter comes as a result of the platform’s unprofitable business model. The network’s user base might be growing, but that doesn’t exactly translate to revenue. Twitter has been profitable for only two years in the last decade. Such an unsustainable business model will have to see drastic changes for it to stay alive.

Elon Musk doesn’t wish to let Twitter be a money sink. His recent actions and statements imply that Twitter might compete with Youtube, Tiktok, and other platforms by rewarding content creators and bringing new subscription models. 

For example, one announcement stated that Twitter might have a Paywalled video feature that allows creators to charge access to their content. Content creators could therefore end up receiving money by monetizing their content on Twitter rather than elsewhere. 

The addition of a cash balance could prompt users to move their money around or keep it on Twitter as a form of online banking. They could also donate money to their favorite content creators – which would further incentivize the niche social media economy. 

Will Elon Musk Add Dogecoin to Twitter? 

Twitter is still in an experimental stage now that Mr. Musk is here. Crypto Twitter users and Dogecoin investors have hoped that Musk would announce a digital wallet. Instead, he went for a TradFi license that integrates fiat money. Most of Doge’s recent gains were erased by the announcement, but who’s to say that all hope is lost for cryptocurrency on Twitter?

Plans of a wallet prototype already exist (allegedly). Such a wallet would support both deposits and withdrawals of cryptocurrency, while also supporting payments on the same platform. And according to a tech journalist from Platformer, the plans for Twitter’s crypto wallet were reportedly put on hold – which doesn’t mean it’s scrapped altogether. 

Musk’s love for Dogecoin has seen a recent revival. The eccentric billionaire joined a Twitter Space this week in which he replied to a question by saying something completely else: “Dogecoin to the moon!” Musk’s twitter activity has also seen a new wave of Dogecoin posts which hint that he has not completely forgotten about his crypto enthusiasm. 

At the time of writing there is not much to say about Elon Musk’s real intentions. The situation with Twitter is complicated enough, and the new CEO surely doesn’t want to make his new position even more difficult. But all speculation leads to the same conclusion: Elon Musk will at some point down the line make Twitter crypto-friendly. And like in many other occasions, Dogecoin will be the first asset to kickstart this journey.

What’s likely to happen is that the company will first focus on making its business profitable. Musk already took the first step by offering verification badges for a price of $8 per month. This should at least somewhat boost Twitter’s revenue. 

Next, we could see Twitter receiving its payments license and adding ways for content creators to monetize their work. Doing so would help all users have balance on their accounts and support their favorite users or move money from one account to another. 

Fiat will surely be the first type of currency on Twitter. But as Musk upgrades the network’s business model, we could see him integrating crypto payments as well. After all, Twitter has already integrated NFTs in the past and the network itself has a large community of crypto investors. 

Perhaps we could even see something similar to Paypal’s adoption of cryptocurrency. Paypal users can buy and sell cryptocurrency via fiat, but lack the ability to directly deposit and withdraw crypto with blockchain wallets. Musk could integrate a similar feature in order to help users spend their money once they have fiat balance. 

No one knows what to really expect. But one thing is for sure: the idea that Twitter might integrate cryptocurrency is still alive and well. It is for us to wait and see how the integration will take place. After all, price action shows that investors expect it. And it wouldn’t be far from true to say that Elon Musk dreams about seeing crypto on Twitter one day. 

If you want to learn more about cryptocurrency, I recommend reading the following articles:

• A Guide to Crypto Twitter
• The History of Crypto
• Exploring Cryptocurrencies and Their Use Cases