by Jan Michael Carpo, Reporter
Crypto enthusiasts argue that technology can “bank the unbanked” by allowing people without bank accounts to quickly send and receive money across borders through e-wallets and other digital financial substitutes. Cryptocurrencies can also give them access to other financial services and opportunities that would have not been available to them otherwise.
Even Twitter seems to agree.
In a recent global survey, it was revealed that the top trend on Twitter over the past two years has been all about finance. In particular, Cryptocurrencies.
Jeff Melei, Twitter’s Director of Financial Services, has recently stated in his blogpost that cryptocurrency is currently the “fastest-growing conversation topic” on its platform in the financial sector.
He says that average users would often Tweet about money, and this trend often goes up 78% year over year, indicating that non-professionals who don’t work in this sector are really interested in the topic. Bitcoins, Ethereum, and Ripple are three of the most trending crypto topics on Twitter. Following that are other noteworthy subjects such as Cardano, DeFi, Coinbase, and Binance.
“We are witnessing an upswell of passionate crypto-enthusiasts,” beamed Melei, “with people on Twitter 3.2 times more likely to contemplate investing in cryptocurrencies than those who are not on Twitter.”
The Twitter executive also said that cryptocurrencies could benefit individuals who are unable to open or access traditional bank accounts as they can easily use cryptocurrencies as a digital financial substitute.
According to the same survey, discussions about NFTs have also taken off on Twitter, growing by about 242 percent. NFTs are special tokens that can represent ownership over digital assets. NFT equities (stocks in companies that invest in NFTs), Zcash, and Bitcoin ATMs are now also being categorized as “developing issues” on Twitter.
Melei offers this advice for those wishing to publish NFTs: “Don’t just jump on the NFT bandwagon; make something that matters to your community.”
Other well-liked cryptocurrency subjects that have recently witnessed a comparable percentage gain on Twitter include decentralized exchanges, dapps, and stablecoins.
When it comes to social tokens, Tweets regarding “fan tokens” have also increased 994 percent in the past year.
The Cypherpunk movement, whose members have pushed for digital anonymity since the early 1990s, has also made the assumption that “growing discourse about entry-level products on Twitter may make the typical individual comfortable in investing.”
Given the enthusiasm for Bitcoin held by Twitter’s founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, as well as the company’s introduction of the Bitcoin Lightning Network tipping feature and the integration of NFT profile pictures, Twitter’s bullish stance on cryptocurrencies and NFTs as a whole is not at all surprising.