Elon Musk open to the idea of Bitcoin on X

Yesterday, a Space organized by Cathie Wood on X was held regarding Bitcoin ETFs, during which Elon Musk also spoke. 

The Space was titled “ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) Approved | Cathie Wood Discusses”, and it was specifically dedicated to the SEC’s approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF proposed by Ark, the company led by Wood. 

Elon Musk’s intervention on X regarding the approval of Bitcoin Spot ETFs

Musk did not intervene just because the Space was held on X, or because they were talking about Bitcoin ETFs, but also and above all because he knows Cathie Wood. 

Wood is a celebrity in the US financial industry, and Musk has always been one of the key players in that industry, since the days of PayPal.

In addition, Musk had already clashed with Wood on Twitter before, so in itself this intervention of his is not unusual. 

What made news, besides the fact that Space was actually dedicated to Bitcoin, are the words he said. 

At a certain point, the owner of X said that although he is not spending much time thinking about Bitcoin, he also explicitly stated that he is open to the idea of using Bitcoin on X.

It is not clear what he was referring to, but it certainly was not referring to the use of BTC as a means of payment. In fact, he specified that he believes Bitcoin is like gold, and that it is not suitable for payments.

Payments on X

During this 2024, X should add new features related to the financial world. 

The first one to be announced is precisely the one concerning payments.

This is the possibility for users to send money to each other in P2P (peer-to-peer) mode, that is, directly between users. In short, something very similar to “send to friends” on PayPal. 

Evidently Musk does not think that these shipments can be made in BTC, also because in fact those who make payments often prefer to pay in fiat currency rather than in Bitcoin. 

Actually, the details of how the payment methods on X should work are still unknown, except that the company has promised to enable them by the end of the year. 

Elon Musk, X and Bitcoin

Elon Musk has been following Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for several years now, but it was in December 2020, while the latest major bull run was starting, that he publicly revealed his interest. 

In January 2021, it was known that his Tesla had made a significant investment in BTC, during the peak of the bubble, but in the following months Musk has distanced himself a bit from Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, especially when the bubble burst. 

However, he also stated last year that he had not sold his personal crypto, and his intervention last night in a Space dedicated specifically to the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs seems to suggest that he is becoming interested in it again. 

It should be remembered that even during the time of PayPal, of which Musk was one of the co-founders, they had in mind to create their own currency. The project was then aborted, and later Bitcoin appeared, but by then Musk had already left PayPal. 

Interestingly, last year PayPal launched its own stablecoin called PYUSD. 

X and Bitcoin

There has been a lot of discussion about how Twitter, first, and X later, could integrate cryptocurrencies. 

The most popular hypothesis is that X will end up adding trading functionality, similar to that of the Robinhood app, and that cryptocurrencies will also be added among these.

It is worth noting that Musk has been a strong supporter of Dogecoin, although for over a year now he no longer seems to be interested in the first meme-coin in history. 

Now he is mainly interested in the growth of X, and this certainly also involves the addition of financial instruments. 

Although payments may seem like one of the most useful and probably used financial tools on an app like X, the competition in this regard is frightening, starting with PayPal. 

The competition, on the other hand, is significantly lower when it comes to trading-related features, also because, for example, Robinhood is not at all a social network. 

So even though it is probably more difficult to add trading to X rather than adding P2P payments, perhaps trading will be able to attract more people to the social network, also thanks to the very prominent financial news on X. 

ETFs and Bitcoin

The fact is that this 2024 could turn out to be an epochal year for Bitcoin, thanks to the new ETFs. 

The hypothesis circulating is that these new financial derivatives that will be launched today on the main US stock exchanges could attract several billion dollars of new capital to BTC, perhaps even hundreds over the years. 

Therefore, 2024 could prove to be a year of great media and investor attention for Bitcoin, so much so that in these days with the soap opera of SEC approval, interest has already been very high. 

If the new ETFs were to achieve immediate success, many would certainly try to jump on the bandwagon to benefit especially from a visibility standpoint, and Elon Musk currently needs a lot of visibility for his X.