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Twitter granted money transmitter licenses in 3 States, crypto fans grow hopeful
By: Kitco | July 6, 2023

Twitter remains dedicated to integrating payment functionality as part of its goal to become an “everything app” as recently filed documents show that Twitter Payments LLC – the social media company's payments subsidiary – has received its first three money transmitter licenses in Michigan, New Hampshire and Missouri.

Data from NMLS Consumer Access shows that Twitter Payments LLC was granted a money transmitter license in New Hampshire on June 29, in Michigan on July 3, and received a “Sale of Checks and Money Transmitter License” from Missouri on July 3.

A money transmitter license is required for any company or person engaging in the business of money transmission or advertising, soliciting, or holding itself out as providing money transmission. Money transmission applies to selling or issuing payment instruments, stored value, or receiving money or monetary value for transmission.

Additional details on this development are scant, and Twitter did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. The company has applied for licenses in all 50 U.S. states, and there’s no clear timeline for the approval process.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has long voiced his interest in transforming Twitter into an everything app, dubbed “X”, that would be similar to China’s WeChat platform – and payments are a main component of that goal.

After Musk purchased Twitter in April 2022, many cryptocurrency proponents grew optimistic that he would integrate crypto payments on the app due to his previous positive comments about the asset class, especially Dogecoin (DOGE).

On September 29, messages between Musk and Twitter’s senior management were published, which revealed that he had been considering making DOGE the operating currency for the entire platform.

“I have an idea for a blockchain social media 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 the ‘tweets’ are embedded in the transaction of comments. So you’d have to pay maybe 0.1 Doge per comment or repost of that comment.”

In October, tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong tweeted that Twitter was beginning work on a “wallet prototype,” but those efforts ultimately stalled, with the company announcing in November that it was halting its plan to build its own crypto wallet.

The grating of multiple money transmitter licenses has brought renewed interest in payments on the platform. Still, at this time, blockchain and cryptocurrencies are not part of the near-term development.

In January, two people familiar with Twitter’s plans said that the payments feature will support fiat currencies to start but be built to accommodate cryptocurrencies should the opportunity arise.

There have also been rumors that Twitter Payments plans to launch a project called “Twitter Coin,” which will coincide with the launch of its own crypto wallet. Twitter has yet to verify any such development.

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