Elon Musk has reacted to rumors that his ‘X’ platform (formerly known as Twitter) is reportedly looking to build a trading hub on the site, allowing for the trading of cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin.
The Backstory Behind The Dogecoin Rumor
Media outlet Semafor earlier reported, citing documents and sources familiar with the situation, that Musk’s X was looking for a financial-data giant to build a trading hub on the X app.
As part of this plan, X reportedly sent requests to big data financial providers in recent weeks seeking proposals to provide “financial content, real-time stock data, and other features” on the application. In its requests, X had offered these finance giants an opportunity to reach “hundreds of millions of highly-qualified users.”
The request, however, failed to mention how much any interested bidder would receive by integrating into the platform. Instead, X stated that they would have to commit to the project themselves and asked interested bidders to include how much they could commit in their proposals.
However, in a tweet, Musk stated that “no work is being done on this to the best of my knowledge” in response to the rumors of a trading hub being built by the social media platform.
This isn’t ‘the first time the idea of a trading hub on the X platform has been considered. Earlier this year, social trading and multi-asset investment company eToro announced its partnership with Twitter (as it then was) to offer trading insights on the prices of cryptocurrencies and other assets. However, this plan never materialized.
Musk’s Vision And How Crypto Could Come In
Elon Musk has stated that he plans to make X the first Western super-app. Musk’s vision shares similarities with WeChat in China, which offers multi-services like instant messaging and mobile payments. In fact, in his first meeting with Twitter employees before the takeover, he said:
“I think that there’s a real opportunity to create that. You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so useful and so helpful to your daily life. And I think if we could achieve that, or even close to that with Twitter, it would be an immense success.”
While explaining the rebranding of Twitter to X in July, Musk tweeted that he wanted to make X a platform where users can conduct their “entire financial world.”
According to him: “In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world. The Twitter name does not make sense in that context, so we must bid adieu to the bird.”
There is a growing belief that X could also integrate the trading of cryptocurrencies (a move that could push the mainstream adoption of digital assets) on the platform. This isn’t far-fetched considering Musk’s interest in digital assets, especially meme coin dogecoin (DOGE). More so, the crypto exchange Binance had invested in Musk’s takeover of Twitter, making this a real possibility.