Musk bombshell animates crypto markets

Rania Gule

The prices of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies have experienced significant fluctuations over the past few months due to increasing economic and regulatory pressures. Traders are now gearing up for a seismic event on Wall Street in the Crypto markets worth $15.5 trillion in September.

This comes after an insider at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned buyers of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies about the Binance platform, suggesting that Elon Musk could turn X (Twitter) into an updated version of the electronic bank PayPal called “Pi-Bi-El.”

It appears that Musk is preparing to unleash a massive bombshell in the Crypto markets should he decide to announce a new payment system, an updated version of the electronic PayPal bank that offers low transaction costs compared to credit cards and generates income through user data usage. Earlier this month, media reports indicated that Elon Musk denied the possibility of X adding an integrated trading platform within the app as part of a plan to transform the app into the world’s financial data giant. He continues to insist that X will never launch its cryptocurrency but rather serve as a competitor to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and his favorite Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

It’s worth noting that PayPal’s bank was launched by Elon Musk’s payments giant X.com when it merged with Confinity in March and introduced a stablecoin linked to the U.S. dollar called PYUSD in hopes of success where Meta failed with its stablecoin Libra, which later became Diem.

In my opinion, despite the hype surrounding PayPal’s new stablecoin, very few people are using PYUSD and holding it in their wallets. I believe this could dampen the enthusiasm for X to follow in PayPal’s footsteps on Wall Street and may delay or even lead to the cancellation of Elon Musk’s plans due to a lack of demand from cryptocurrency users for PYUSD, given the availability of other alternatives. This could be due to PayPal’s targeting of specific regions and countries. Most blockchain data indicates that about 90% of PYUSD is currently held in wallets controlled by the issuer, Paxos, with exchange holdings accounting for 7% of the total supply, and only 3% held by traders.

This comes as BlackRock plans to establish a long-awaited American Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), also known as the “approval seal.” The world’s largest asset management company has piqued Wall Street’s interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies by applying for a Bitcoin ETF in June last year, bolstering the rise of Bitcoin, which leads the Crypto asset movement.