BitcoinBTC, ethereum, XRPXRP and other major cryptocurrencies are currently braced for volatility after a looming Joe Biden executive order set alarm bells ringing.
The bitcoin price is languishing at under half of its all-time high of almost $70,000 per bitcoin it hit in late 2021, weighing on ethereum, XRP and other major cryptocurrencies such as the meme-based dogecoin—which Telsa billionaire and X (Twitter) owner Elon Musk has been revealed to have been “quietly” funding.
Now, X chief executive Linda Yaccarino is due to meet with seven banks that funded Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and its re-brand to X this coming week and will reportedly propose expansion into payments after a leak suggested Musk could turn X into an “updated version of PayPal.”
Bitcoin’s historical halving that’s expected to cause crypto price chaos is just around the corner! Sign up now for the free CryptoCodex—A daily newsletter for traders, investors and the crypto-curious that will keep you ahead of the market
Yaccarino will meet with bankers from Morgan StanleyMS, Bank of America, Barclays, MUFG, BNP Paribas, Mizuho and Société Générale on October 5 to outline her plans to revive the platform, it was reported by the Financial Times, citing anonymous sources.
Musk and X’s need to expand into PayPal’s territory comes after the platform saw an exodus of advertisers following the takeover. “They need ad dollars to come back,” one banker told the FT.
Rumors and reports have circulated for months that Musk is planning to build X into a finance company, echoing Musk’s orginal plan for the company X.com he founded in 1999 that merged with online bank Confinity to become PayPal.
PayPal has this year leaned into bitcoin and crypto, launching its own dollar-pegged stablecoin cryptocurrency after rolling out support for bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and bitcoin cash in late 2020. PayPal’s original support for bitcoin and crypto helped kick off the 2021 bitcoin price bull run that catapulted bitcoin to almost $70,000.
Sign up now for CryptoCodex—A free, daily newsletter for the crypto-curious
In August, Musk issued a stringent denial that X will launch a cryptocurrency of its own to rival bitcoin, ethereum, XRP or dogecoin, sparking specualtion the platform could integrate existing cryptocurrencies.
Musk has said he personal holds bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin while his electric car company Tesla holds almost $300 million worth of bitcoin and accepts the meme-based bitcoin rival dogecoin as payment for merchandise.
Before buying Twitter last year for an eye-watering $44 billion, Musk considered creating “a new social-media platform based on the blockchain” that “could have a payment system using dogecoin, the semi-serious cryptocurrency whose development he had been quietly funding,” Musk biographer Walter Isaacson wrote in an excerpt of his new book, titled simply Elon Musk, published in the Wall Street Journal.
Follow me on Twitter.
