Twitter plans to integrate crypto payments; Montenegro central bank collaborates with Ripple on digital currency pilot project; Sam Bankman-Fried requests a face-to-face meeting with FTX CEO Ray
Twitter plans to integrate crypto payments
Social media giant Twitter plans to enable cryptocurrency payments. According to the Financial Times, social media giant Twitter has started working on a system that allows payments with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Tesla CEO and also owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, plans to add cryptocurrencies later, although he wants the payment system to be for fiat currencies in the first place. In a previous statement, Elon Musk stated that he wants Twitter to be an application that includes payment and trade transactions, and that they want to integrate fintech services for this.
Twitter is working with regulators to launch this type of payment system. Twitter registered with the US Treasury last November to become a payment processor, according to a filing.
Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, the company had formed a subsidiary called Twitter Payments LLC. Elon Musk has recently appointed Crawford, the company’s director of product management, as the new CEO of Twitter Payments.
According to three sources familiar with the matter, Musk wants to pave the way for users to reward creators directly and allow users to pay each other through the platform.
Elon Musk, in his presentation to Twitter investors, said that the company plans to generate approximately $1.3 billion in payment revenue by 2028.
https://www.ft.com/content/9d84d534-b2dd-4cff-85d1-aee137b26a45
Montenegro central bank collaborates with Ripple on digital currency pilot project
The Montenegrin prime minister announced the “digital currency or stablecoin” project with Ripple. The Balkan country currently uses the euro as its national currency.
Landlord Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said on Twitter that the country has partnered with Ripple for a digital currency. Abazovic met with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and vice president James Wallis in Davos.
“In collaboration with Ripple and the Central Bank, we have launched a pilot project to create the first digital currency or stablecoin for Montenegro”
Landlord Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic
However, as Montenegro currently does not have its own national currency, it is unclear what the digital currency will be like. Although the Balkan country is not a member of the European Union, it has been using the euro as its currency since 2002. The country applied to become a member of the European Union in 2008.
The Montenegrin government has been seeking a place in the cryptocurrency industry in recent months. The country has gained notoriety for embracing crypto and Future Now! An event was organized. Vitalik Buterin, who attended this event in April, was granted Montenegrin citizenship at that time.
A Ripple advisor promised new activity in CBDC deals on behalf of the company last year and mentioned Bhutan and Palau for several ongoing pilots. The company, which is a founding member of the Digital Dollar Project, joined the Digital Euro Association in February 2022.
Sam Bankman-Fried requests a face-to-face meeting with FTX CEO Ray
Sam Bankman-Fried expressed that he would like to meet face-to-face with John Ray, CEO of FTX. On January 2nd, SBF sent the following message to John Ray:
“I know things are not going well and I really want to help with funds or anything else”
Federal prosecutors demanded new bail terms banning SBF’s encrypted messaging apps and filed the submitted emails with the court. Authorities additionally want to ban SBF from communicating with any other former and current FTX employee except his father.
SBF stated that it contacted John Ray after the collapse. In another email to John Ray on Dec. 30, SBF shared an article about funding received from Alameda Research.
“If you have assets on your team that’s great! If not, I’m worried it might be a hacker. It’s probably the same situation as it was a month and a half ago”
SBF also expressed that it can help in reaching the funds.
“I’d be happy to talk about how you can access the funds if it helps”
Prosecutors said they recently contacted one of the key witnesses in the case, FTX US’s general counsel, using SBF’s encrypted messaging app Signal.
SBF’s attorney, Mark Cohen, said the SBF’s effort was a “harmless undertaking”.