Solana Advisor Nikita Bier Joins Elon Musk’s X, Reigniting Crypto Payments Speculation

Nikita Bier, a widely known advisor to Solana Labs and app creator, is becoming a member of X as head of product, he stated 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 favorite cryptocurrency, will lastly discover a dwelling 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.

“Girls and gents, I’ve formally posted my option to the highest,” Bier wrote on X. “I’m becoming a member of X as Head of Product.”

In an X submit exhibiting him posing with Musk—which Musk then quote-tweeted—Bier credited the social media platform with shaping web tradition and international discourse, and stated it had performed a defining function 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 folks convene.”

As a part of his new function, Bier, who based TBH—a polling app acquired by Fb in 2017—stated he would deal with integrating Grok, X’s in-house chatbot developed by xAI, into the platform. His purpose, he stated, 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 be to construct his “everything app.”

Since 2023, X has quietly acquired cash transmitter licenses in over a dozen U.S. states, together with Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan. In Could, Musk introduced that X customers would quickly be capable of make funds utilizing a local forex referred to as X Money. In June, CEO Linda Yaccarino adopted up with plans to support 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 worth actions, there was no affirmation that Dogecoin will probably 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.