Twitter Halts Crypto Wallet Project, Driving DOGE Down Over 10%
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(Kitco News) – Twitter has halted its plan to build its own crypto wallet, according to a report published by Platformer on Wednesday evening. The report triggered a drop of over 10% for Dogecoin (DOGE).
“A recently revealed plan to build a crypto wallet for Twitter appears to be on hold,” the article said. The point appeared almost as an afterthought towards the end of a roundup of notes about internal changes on Twitter, but DOGE sold off sharply immediately after publication.
DOGE has served as a proxy for market sentiment against new Twitter owner Elon Musk since early 2021. When Musk completed his purchase of Twitter in late October and took the company private, Dogecoin’s price more than doubled, and many expected him to push new crypto initiatives as part of his restructuring of the platform.
The value of DOGE has been closely linked to Musk since he first posted a tweet of himself with a Shiba Inu – the dog breed associated with the doge meme that gave Dogecoin its name – in January 2021. On September 29, 2022, messages were sent between Musk and Twitter’s senior management went public revealing that he had considered making DOGE the operating currency for the entire platform.
“I have an idea for a social media blockchain system that does both payments and short text messages/links like twitter,” he wrote. “My plan B is a blockchain-based version of twitter, where ‘tweets’ are embedded in the transaction of comments. So you have to pay maybe 0.1 Doge per comment or repost of that comment.”
On October 24, technology blogger Jane Manchun Wong tweeted that Twitter began work on a “wallet prototype”. Dogecoin was already in the middle of a strong run during Musk’s Twitter takeover, and the news that the platform would have its own integrated wallet for cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals fueled further enthusiasm for DOGE. The rumor has led many to speculate that Twitter may eventually develop into a complete Web3 platform.
It’s worth noting that Wong never shared any details about the Twitter wallet project, and the Platformer article has not been confirmed by other media outlets or confirmed by a Twitter representative. Several outlets have contacted Twitter for comment.
DOGE had a very strong October, increasing its value by over 100%, compared to Ether’s 18% and Bitcoin’s 5.5% gain. At the time of this publication, DOGE has recovered much of its losses and is down 3.1% on the day at $0.127.
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