Twitter Working on Fiat & Crypto Payments, as Platform on Track to Build the Everything App

Image: James Martin/CNET

Twitter may move forward with the integration of fiat and cryptocurrency payments into the platform. The company began applying for US government licenses.

Twitter has begun filing applications for regulatory licenses across the US and designing the software required to introduce payments across the platform, the Financial Times reported. Esther Crawford, who embodies Elon Musk's “hardcore” vision for Twitter, has reportedly begun developing the architecture needed to facilitate payments on the platform, along with a small team.

These steps to allow payments through the platform are an important part of Musk's plan to open up new revenue streams for Twitter. While the new owner is happy to work with advertisers to create interesting ads that will be useful to users, he does not want to rely on them as the platform's main revenue stream. Payments will become an important part of Twitter in the future, which will eventually generate a lot of revenue for the company.

In early November 2022, Elon Musk explained his vision for Twitter-as-Payments-App during a livestreamed Twitter Advertisers Meeting held via Twitter Spaces. He suggested that in the future, users will be able to send money to each other on the platform and transfer their funds to verified bank accounts. Also, later there may be offered a high-yield money market account to encourage users to move their cash to Twitter. At that time, the company had filed registration paperwork that would allow it to process payments.

Musk said he wants Twitter to offer fintech services such as peer-to-peer transactions, savings accounts, and debit cards, as part of a master plan to launch an “Everything App” that incorporates messaging, payments, and commerce, modeled like WeChat in China. Although the new owner is now in the automotive and aerospace industry, he has extensive experience building payment applications, having co-founded X.com in 1999, one of the first online banks that later became part of payment giant PayPal.

Crawford's team is moving forward, including developing a vault to store and protect user data that will be collected by the system, according to the Financial Times. In addition to registering with the US Treasury as a payment processor, Twitter has now also started applying for some government licenses it will need to launch. It is expected that all necessary documents will be submitted by this year. Once the process is completed in the US, Twitter will move on to seeking regulatory approvals internationally. According to the plan, the payment system will be primarily fiat, however built in such a way that crypto features could potentially be added at a later stage.

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