In short
X’s new product head, Nikita Bier, beforehand served as an advisor to Solana Labs.
The announcement comes as X plans to launch long-promised fee and buying and selling options.
Bier’s crypto background is fueling hypothesis that digital property like Dogecoin or Solana could play a task.
Nikita Bier, a widely known advisor to Solana Labs and app creator, is becoming a member of X as head of product, he mentioned Monday.
The transfer comes amid rising hypothesis about X’s plans to evolve right into a funds platform—and whether or not Dogecoin, Elon Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency, will lastly discover a house there.
Dogecoin ticked up barely following the announcement, rising 1.82% from $0.1645 at 9:30 a.m. PT to a day by day excessive of $0.1675 earlier than falling once more to $0.1659.
“Women and gents, I’ve formally posted my solution to the highest,” Bier wrote on X. “I’m becoming a member of X as Head of Product.”
In an X publish displaying him posing with Musk—which Musk then quote-tweeted—Bier credited the social media platform with shaping web tradition and world discourse, and mentioned it had performed a defining position in his private {and professional} life: “X is a very powerful social community on the planet. It is the place web tradition originates and the place the world’s most influential individuals convene.”
As a part of his new position, Bier, who based TBH—a polling app acquired by Fb in 2017—mentioned he would concentrate on integrating Grok, X’s in-house chatbot developed by xAI, into the platform. His purpose, he mentioned, is to assist customers higher perceive real-time conversations by constructing “hyper-relevant timelines.”
Bier’s appointment might also sign a deeper push towards crypto integration as Musk seems to construct his “all the things app.”
Since 2023, X has quietly acquired cash transmitter licenses in over a dozen U.S. states, together with Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan. In Might, Musk introduced that X customers would quickly be capable to make funds utilizing a local foreign money referred to as X Cash. In June, CEO Linda Yaccarino adopted up with plans to help in-app investing and buying and selling.
Nonetheless, a query stays: Whither Dogecoin?
Regardless of Musk’s long-standing public affection for the primary meme coin, together with previous tweets which have sparked vital value actions, there was no affirmation that Dogecoin will likely be a part of X’s monetary ecosystem.
“Whereas I already spend each waking hour on this app,” Bier wrote, “I’ll now be spending that point serving to others unlock that very same worth.”
Bier didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark by Decrypt.
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