Battle for Twitter: and the winner is… crypto

Big news may be coming to Twitter and the whole social media world.

Today Elon Musk made a public offer to buy Twitter shares at $54.20 each, which represents a 38% premium over the stock price of the day before.

Already holding 9.2% of Twitter stocks purchased earlier this month, Elon Musk ambitions to buy all 100% of it and turn Twitter private. Why? To unlock Twitter’s “extraordinary potential”.

Mr Musk is known for calling out Twitter on “failure to adhere to free speech principles”, and also for suggesting Dogecoin as a means of payment for Twitter Blue subscription service. Many would expect that Twitter’s crypto exposure (already the highest among social media) would increase significantly, but there appears to be another contender, even more connected to crypto.

Justin Sun, the founder of TRON blockchain, tweeted several hours after Musk’s announcement that he is ready to offer $60 per share to take Twitter private. He reiterated claims about the platform’s potential and pledged to make it “crypto-native and Web3 friendly”.

Justin Sun is a controversial figure to say the least. Through a maze of acquisitions and partnerships (Poloniex exchange, BitTorrent, decentralized social media Steemit among others) he has been trying to position TRON as a blockchain for gaming and media, but his questionable business practices earned him a nefarious reputation (Steemit community even forked the blockchain to create a new platform and escape Sun’s control).

Whether Musk’s or Sun’s offers will be accepted by the Twitter board and afterwards – by its shareholders, is still an open question. However, after integrating verified NFT avatars and crypto tips, Twitter is most likely to be the first social media to take the crypto highway, and we cannot wait to see which form it will take.