Elon Musk Rebranding Twitter to X May Open Door for Crypto Payments. Time to Buy XRP, XLM, DOGE, Bitcoin, BTC20, ETH?

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Will Elon Musk’s plan to transform Twitter into a superapp like China’s WeChat open opportunities for cryptocurrencies to be used as a payment method on his newly branded X platform?

That’s the most intriguing question for the crypto industry after Musk rebranded Twitter as X today.

Prior to his dramatic takeover of Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion, Musk had expressed his intention to expedite the realization of his ambitious “everything app” known as “X.”

Today he said that if it was done right, the creation of an X app built off Twitter that that includes features from payments to shopping could potentially become half of the global financial system.

Rebranding Twitter to X has reinforced the billionaires’ long-held commitment to an “everything” superapp similar to China’s WeChat, India’s PayTM and Indonesia’s GoJek.

pic.twitter.com/IwcbqMnQtA

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023

Elon Musk’s Vision for X Includes Banking, Payments, Shopping

Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino posted a photo of the company’s new logo, and declared, “X is here! Let’s do this.”

In her earlier tweets, Yaccarino hinted at the possibility of incorporating Artificial Intelligence into the new superapp, saying that X represents the future of boundless interactivity, focusing on audio, video, messaging, payments, and banking, culminating in the creation of a worldwide marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.

Crypto payments may thus be a part of the superapp‘s future given the Twitter owner’s close association with the industry. Musk’s long association with the popular meme coin DOGE also points to the possibility of crypto being integral to X’s payment system.

Top Cryptos That May Be Integrated into Elon Musk’s X

So which tokens are most likely to be payment methods allowed by X? Top of the list would likely be Bitcoin and Dogecoin, for obvious reasons. Other possible tokens include Ripple’s XRP, Stellar (XLM), BTC20, and Ethereum (ETH)?

BTC

Bitcoin was originally designed as a peer-to-peer payment network. Its popularity, increasing adoption, and value as the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization places it among the top choices for those who want to use it as a payment platform. Unfortunately, the Bitcoin network has proved too slow and volatile to make it a realistic global digital payment option.

However, X could use the Lightning Network that runs on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, and it uses multi-signature wallets to enable the creation of off-chain payment channels. This allows for faster (1,000,000 TPS), cheaper transactions, and the ability to make transactions without waiting for block confirmation on the blockchain.

DOGE

Dogecoin is closely associated with Elon Musk, who is sometimes referred to as the “father of DOGE” by the crypto community. Every time Musk talks about this dog-themed coin, tweets about it, or posts a photo of his Shiba Inu dog, Dogecoin’s price responds with a massive rally.

This had led many to believe the billionaire entrepreneur could integrate the altcoin into Twitter payments, now X. Some DOGE enthusiasts called out to Musk to incorporate the meme coin into the social media app when he acquired it last October.

Before anyone has a heart attack that I’m shilling doge,

It’s still my honest opinion that Elon Musk is going to integrate doge into twitter somehow… 😂

— Layah Heilpern (@LayahHeilpern) October 29, 2022

Apart from DOGE’s close association with the Twitter boss, the Dogecoin blockchain would be a good payment platform for X due to a number of reasons. First, it has potential as a payment system due to its fast transaction time (33 TPS) and low fees. Second, its popularity means high liquidity, making it easy to buy and sell. This is attractive to X users who may want to quickly liquidate assets if needed.

XRP

Ripple is a money transfer network designed to serve the needs of the financial services industry. XRP is the native crypto token of the Ripple network, and it consistently lists among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Its scalability, with 1,500 transactions per second (TPS), and the inherently green attributes that make it carbon-neutral and energy-efficient, make it a possible pick for Musk.

The recent ruling by a US court that XRP is not a security could help with increased adoption of the remittances token, in turn helping X with its goals. However, it should be noted that the legal battle is not over for Ripple as part of the case goes to trial with the SEC saying that it would appeal parts of Judge Analisa Torres’s ruling. This could be an impediment to XRP’s integration into X.

XLM

Stellar is a built-in protocol that automatically converts money sent through Stellar to lumens and then to the desired coin. Stellar could be an easy pick for Elon Musk because it is designed to move financial resources swiftly and reliably at a minimal cost. Every transaction on the cross-border payments platform costs just 0.00001 XLM ($0.000014 at current rates).

Moreover, Stellar can handle up to 4,000 TPS on its network with transactions being settled within 3 to 5 seconds, making it significantly faster than many other blockchain platforms.

BTC20

BTC20 is a new token inspired by the market’s leader, Bitcoin, and is built on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token. BTC20 is an interesting choice for X as it rolls back the blockchain to April 2011, when Bitcoin was going for a mere $1 accompanied by a circulating supply of 6.05 million tokens.

BTC20 is built on the Ethereum network and uses the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, an eco-friendly model that advances sustainability. It also makes sure that token holders earn income passively as they maintain the network’s security through staking.

BTC20 continues to gain traction with the team behind the project having raised over $1.5 million within two weeks of the presale launch.

🚀 $1.5M Raised! 💰🎉

Big news! The $BTC20 #Presale just crossed the $1.5 million mark! 🎊

Join us in revolutionizing staking and building a sustainable future with #BTC20! 🌐🌿

Don't miss out! Get your $BTC20 #Tokens now: https://t.co/N56IcYsKHq #Crypto #Staking… pic.twitter.com/Nw3rjuhJaB

— BTC20 (@BTC20Token) July 24, 2023

Visit BTC20 here for more information on how to participate in the ongoing presale.

ETH

Ethereum is the most widely used blockchain platform in the world. It has liquidity arising from high demand for the asset and wide adoption working in its favour. It shows that crypto users are prepared to keep using it.

However, with transaction speeds of just 15 TPS and high gas fees, Ethereum may not be a go-to platform for Musk and X. Layer 2 platforms built on the Ethereum blockchains such as Polygon (MATIC) with 65,000 TPS, Arbitrum, 40,000 TPS and Optimism, 2,000 TPS may be better options.

As Twitter turns from a blue bird to just a simple X, the tech giant continues to deal with debts and after losing nearly half its advertising revenue, new strategies are required to bring it back to profitability.

One of the ways is to make it a payments platform. Meanwhile, the crypto community waits with bated breath to see if crypto payments will be included, and if so, which coins.