Twitter Monthly Fees Could Speed Crypto Adoption Globally

While the partisan bickering and cries of alarm over Elon Musk acquiring Twitter won’t be going away any time soon, the billionaire’s purchase is a gift that keeps on giving for crypto.

We’ve written about how crypto was an integral part of the acquisition, and how Musk is considering ideas for moving the social media site into a Web3-powered, decentralized platform model. Now Musk is saying that he may expand verification – those little blue check marks next to user names that provide clout – to the masses and charge a modest monthly fee for it, in addition to the Twitter Blue premium service.

As of now – and assuming Twitter’s numbers are accurate – the site has 238 million active users and about 400,000 verified users. The thing about that proposed monthly fee is, Musk could make it payable in crypto, and maybe even only in crypto. That’s what Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who is a major equity party in Twitter, suggested in an interview Monday on CNBC.

“We want to help solve immediate problems,” Zhao said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday morning, days after Binance helped to finance Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, which is being taken private and de-listed. “Charging for memberships etcetera can be done very easily globally using cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.”

Zhao’s comment comes after buzz about possible monthly charges for Twitter blue subscriptions, as well as a charge for verified users, who would lose the blue verification checkmark within 90 days if they didn’t pay. The news was first reported by The Verge, which cited an “internal correspondence.”

In the interview with CNBC on Monday morning, Zhao said there was a need to “make sure crypto has a seat at the table when it comes to free speech.”

Zhao also added that he is not worried about the short-term price fluctuations of Twitter.

“I believe Twitter has not been monetized well, it has not been grown well. There’s many tactical problems, like the bots, the spam […] it’s just not been run well,” he said, while adding that he believes the Twitter platform itself is very strong.

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“We’re excited to be able to help Elon realize a new vision for Twitter. We aim to play a role in bringing social media and Web3 together in order to broaden the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology,” Zhao said last week in an email to MarketWatch.

Patrick Hillman, Chief Strategy Officer of Binance, is also enthusiastic about what blockchain technology can do to address some of the biggest challenges in Web2, such as with security and trust.