Not everyone keeps tabs on the stock market or cryptocurrency, but if you do, then you'd know that on February 8, Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. After the company revealed its huge stake, bitcoin's value jumped by whopping 20.33 percent to $46,081.64—the highest it has ever been since March 2020.
That said, it's been revealed that Tesla isn't the only business with interest in the cryptocurrency.
Twitter May Soon Pay Its Employees in Bitcoin
In an interview with CNBC, Twitter CFO Ned Segal said that the company is considering adding bitcoin to its balance sheet.
"We've done a lot of the upfront thinking to consider how we might pay employees should they ask to be paid in #bitcoin, how we might pay a vendor if they asked to be paid in #btc and whether we need to have #btc on our balance sheet," says @NedSegal $TWTR. pic.twitter.com/KjIgnqDmYC
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) February 10, 2021
So Tesla's investment in bitcoin has captured Twitter's attention. The social media platform has yet to actually made a move within its treasury department, but we know now that bitcoin transactions are at least being considered.
When Segal was asked what it would take for Twitter to invest in bitcoin, he gave a very straightforward response.
"One of the key things we'd look at would be if people are asking to transact with us in bitcoin. Because then we might consider whether we would be transferring dollars to bitcoin at the time of the transaction, or if we wanted bitcoin on our balance sheet, ready to complete that transaction," Segal explained.
You might think it unlikely that Twitter would take such a risk when it was just revealed that Twitter is looking to make big changes soon—like the implementation of Revue features and possibly a subscription model.
But Twitter's sister company, Square, is already a bitcoin investor.
Last October, Square took to its official website to announce that it had purchased $50 million worth of bitcoin. At the time, the investment represented approximately one percent of Square’s total assets.
Not only that, but Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is quite the fan of bitcoin. Following the Capitol Hill riots in January, he posted a thread a tweets to discuss the permanent ban of former US president Donald Trump from Twitter.
Somewhere in the middle, Dorsey shifted to shine a spotlight on the cryptocurrency.
The reason I have so much passion for #Bitcoin is largely because of the model it demonstrates: a foundational internet technology that is not controlled or influenced by any single individual or entity. This is what the internet wants to be, and over time, more of it will be.
— jack (@jack) January 14, 2021
Dorsey has become an increasingly more passionate about bitcoin over the years. Around this time last year, Dorsey had Twitter launch a branded hashtag for bitcoin. Now, #bitcoin” is accompanied by the bitcoin logo in tweets.
In 2018, The Times wrote that Dorsey predicts bitcoin to one day become the world's "single currency."
What's Next for Twitter?
We're only two months into 2021 and Twitter is already taking steps to vastly change the platform as we know it today.
Will another step be buying millions worth of bitcoin in the coming months for its transactions? Perhaps, if Twitter thinks of cryptocurrency as "an instrument of economic empowerment" like Square does.
