Elon Musk, billionaire and technological innovator, is considering limiting access for European users to X, the largest cryptocurrency blogging platform, in response to local regulatory issues. This decision could have far-reaching consequences for the global cryptocurrency community, given the importance of the information and discussions conducted on this platform. What could be the actual effects of this move for both users and the cryptocurrency market?
Technological development goes hand in hand with continuous changes in legal regulations, which presents digital entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk, with difficult decisions. According to information published by Business Insider, Musk, who purchased Twitter for $44 billion and fully rebranded it to X, is considering cutting off European users from the platform’s user base. This drastic step stems from issues related to compliance with local laws, particularly the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA requires platforms like X to introduce rigorous content moderation and remove information that may be false, misleading, or harmful to certain consumers. The current geopolitical situation in the Middle East seems to generate a significant amount of disinformation on the X app, which may have already breached the newly introduced regulations in Europe.
Last week, the head of the European Commission stated that the compliance of the X app is officially being examined under the new law. An official request was made to the X app to provide detailed information to keep the platform free from “harmful or toxic information.” In the event of violations by Elon Musk’s company, the X app could be fined up to 6% of its global revenues.
The X platform is crucial for the crypto community as hundreds of thousands of tweets dedicated to Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Dogecoin, and other major and minor digital currencies are published there daily. Posts published on the X platform often have a significant impact on cryptocurrency prices, as news spreads very quickly on X. Moreover, all crypto influencers, exchange heads, and blockchain platform leaders, such as Mike Novogratz, Vitalik Buterin, Ripple’s CEO, and Elon Musk himself, post on the X app daily. Therefore, the importance of X for the global community, including Europe, cannot be overstated.
Although the potential loss of the European audience is unlikely to cause significant harm to the cryptocurrency market, many crypto users will be forced to start using the X app in a much less comfortable way – via VPN. Besides, some cryptocurrency exchanges initially had their headquarters in Europe, for example, Bitstamp, holding local licenses, and now Coinbase is trying to open an office in Europe due to problems with American regulators in the absence of clear regulations.
Coinbase has chosen Ireland as its European cryptocurrency regulation hub. The office has been operating there since 2018 and employs about a hundred people full-time. Now, the leading American cryptocurrency exchange plans to obtain a MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets) license for an expanded range of operations in the European Union. Upon obtaining this license, Coinbase will be able to offer its services in other European countries, such as Italy, France, Germany, and others. It will also be able to more easily introduce new products in these countries, without the obligation to obtain licenses in each of them individually.
The total population of the European Union is about 450 million people; this represents a huge market for Coinbase to focus on in the near future. In the context of these changes, decisions made by technological leaders like Elon Musk will have far-reaching consequences, not just for the availability of digital content, but also for the cryptocurrency market, which is increasingly global and interconnected.
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