It’s official, Elon Musk has taken over Twitter for a reported $44 billion USD. The news caused a frenzy across the globe, particularly amongst crypto enthusiasts and those invested in Dogecoin, of which Musk is a huge advocate for.
In the first week of Musk’s takeover, there has been no shortage of interesting events. But what does this spell for the blockchain industry long term? Already, many experts have weighed in.
Let’s take a look at some key moments that have happened since Elon took over and what many have forecasted may happen next.
So, Elon Musk Now Owns Twitter
Musk is now the majority owner of the social media behemoth, and despite it only being official as of this week, he’s already made quite the stir in a short period of time.
Just one day after the takeover was finalised, Elon entered the office with a sink in hand, posting the following to his own account.
Unfortunately, not everything was so light-hearted.
There has been an ongoing feud between former Twitter CEO, Parag Agrawal and Elon Musk. Musk dropped out of the initial Twitter deal, accusing Parag of not honestly disclosing the number of fake accounts on the platform. In return, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk for backing out of the deal.
Moments after Musk took over Twitter he fired Agrawal and two other top-level executives.
Many are calling this a sign that Elon is ready to make some serious changes at Twitter and intends to take it in a new direction. Some believe that this could be very good for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry as Musk has been a vocal advocate for crypto, particularly Dogecoin (DOGE). Others have expressed concern that Musk’s DOGE spruiking has brought attention to crypto, but has also damaged the industry’s credibility and has been compared by some to market manipulation. Allegations that Musk is currently being sued for in a class action lawsuit.
Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world by trade volume, has come out in support of Musk’s Twitter takeover, putting $500 million USD towards the acquisition. During an interview with CNBC, Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as “CZ” stated his reasons for supporting the deal.
This is a huge show of faith from one of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency world and one that has generated a lot of buzz amongst the crypto community.
What could this spell for Crypto?
In Musk’s first meeting with Twitter employees in June, he discussed the possibility of integrating crypto payments onto the Twitter platform, stating that it “would make sense to integrate payments into Twitter so that it’s easy to send money back and forth. And if you have currency as well as crypto.”
This does seem like a natural progression for Musk and Twitter and could pave the way for wider crypto adoption.
This wouldn’t be Twitter first blockchain feature. In January of this year, Twitter launched verified NFT profile pictures and has supported tips in BTC and ETH for some time now.
Dogecoin Twitter Integration
Of course, one of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind is whether or not Musk will seek to integrate Dogecoin (DOGE) into Twitter. It was speculation of this that sent the price of Dogecoin and Doge-inspired memecoins skyrocketing within days of the acquisition.
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that started as a joke poking fun at cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It has since exploded in popularity and now has huge proponents like Elon Musk, whose previous tweets have been a key driver for its recent successes.
Musk’s affiliation with DOGE is by no means a secret. In fact, just days after taking over Twitter, Elon tweeted about Dogecoin again.
This tweet caused another short-term rally in the price of Dogecoin.
It’s important to note, however, that Musk is not a fan of all cryptocurrencies and has been critical of coins like Ethereum (ETH) in the past, mainly for its high gas fees.
Dogecoin Cardano Sidechain
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano (ADA), recently suggested that Dogecoin (DOGE) could be integrated to be a sidechain to Cardano, with a primary design frame around social media. While it may be a mere thought being tossed around at the moment, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth keeping an ear to the ground for.
The recent Dogecoin rally has resulted in it surpassing Cardano in market capitalisation.
So, What’s Next?
Now that Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, many are wondering what will happen next.
As a private company, Twitter will likely be under less scrutiny from the public and a wide range of shareholders. This could give Musk more leeway to make some big changes.
Only time will tell what’s in store for Twitter under Elon Musk’s reign. However, the recent flurry of activity does suggest that we could be seeing some big changes in the near future. One thing is for sure, the crypto community will be keeping a keen eye on any blockchain adoption that Twitter may integrate in the future.
Ted