Elon Musk floats crypto payments during meeting with Twitter employees

Elon Musk advocated for integrating payments into Twitter more broadly, including support for cryptocurrencies, according to a transcript of a meeting with staffers held Thursday.

Per a leaked transcript published by Vox, Musk was asked about his thinking in this area. Musk replied by saying “[y]our money is essentially a form of information” and that digital payments have become increasingly ubiquitous in recent years. 

Musk went on to say:

“I think 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. Essentially, whenever somebody would find it useful. So the goal, my goal would be to maximize the usefulness of the service — the more useful it is, the better. And if one can use it to make convenient payments, that’s an increase in usefulness.”

Musk appeared to suggest a more direct payments integration than exists today. As previously reported, Twitter rolled out support for bitcoin tipping last fall and later added ether earlier this year for mobile users. 

In his remarks, Musk indicated that payments would form part of a broader strategy to keep people using the site.

“It sort of news, entertainment, and payments, I think, are like three critical areas. But really, it’s just about sort of thinking about how to make this, how to make using Twitter so compelling that you can’t live without it, and that everyone wants to use it,” he said.

The comments come amid a period of uncertainty over whether Musk’s bid to buy the social media giant will actually go through. Despite inking a deal with Twitter’s board this spring, Musk has since argued that he has the right to pull out of the deal.