This Week on Crypto Twitter: Elon Musk Joins Twitter IRL, Do Kwon Buys More Bitcoin

The steady upward price trajectory of leading cryptocurrencies from mid-March onward cooled a bit this week amid news of incoming regulation in both the U.K. and U.S.

But regulation wasn’t at the forefront of crypto Twitter this week, where the biggest news was that Dogecoin-pumping and Bitcoin-HODLing Tesla CEO Elon Musk had bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter on Monday. The price of Dogecoin rallied 9% following the announcement. 

Musk’s position in Twitter is hardly small, either, as Bloomberg's Tim Stenovec pointed out.

Nearly 24 hours later, Twitter CEO Paral Agrawal welcomed Musk to Twitter’s board.

Twitter submitted an SEC filing naming Musk a “Class II Director” until his term ends in 2024. The language of the filing appears to guard against a possible takeover of the company during that span, as business journalist Scott Nover pointed out, though Musk can still increase his stake.

Twitter has been pivoting toward blockchain technology since at least November, when the microblogging platform first announced it had established a team to look at “crypto, blockchain, and other decentralized technologies—including and going beyond cryptocurrencies.” But nothing's really happened so far, unless you count the platform rolling out NFT profile pictures for Twitter Blue subscribers in certain regions in January.

Funnily enough, Musk was among the first to criticize NFT PFPs. When the feature launched, he tweeted, “This is annoying,” before arguing that tackling the abundance of crypto-related spambots was a higher priority.

Clearly, Musk has big ideas about both crypto and Twitter, and his insights could benefit a platform looking to capitalize on the nascent crypto industry. But before that, Musk wanted to know whether users wanted an "edit" button.

Musk’s poll may be binding, as Agrawal stressed when he urged voters to “vote carefully” since their choices had “consequences.”

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao replied to Musk’s poll: “Getting rid of spam is probably higher priority.”

'Might go shopping'

On Wednesday, 30-year-old Terra CEO Do Kwon had a chill day around the house. By the time he’d got around to his vacuuming, Terra’s Bitcoin coffers had swollen to $1.6 billion

He's been steadily buying up Bitcoin in bursts since January with the aim of increasing Terra’s BTC treasury to $10 billion, which would help to ensure Terra’s algorithmic stablecoins keep their peg.

Just this morning, Kwon bought another 4129.99 BTC, increasing Terra’s stash to about $1.7 billion as of this writing.

Elsewhere

Since returning to the helm of Starbucks, Howard Schultz has had to pay attention to the unionization of the brand’s U.S. baristas.

Schultz opposes unionization, and for the last two decades has built up a reputation for actively quashing it through firings and by running up legal bills with union-busting law firm Littler Mendelson.

On Monday, in an address aimed at his employees, Schultz promised them that Starbucks plans to get into NFTs, although details as to how the coffee giant’s crypto pivot would benefit its workers were virtually non-existent.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles restaurateur Andy Nguyen teased his Bored & Hungry burger popup in Long Beach. The restaurant is inspired by Nguyen’s Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) acquisitions, most notably his profile picture, for which he paid $267,000 last month.

Bored & Hungry opened Saturday and is slated to run for 90 days. Verified BAYC NFT holders will get free food, as will Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders.

And finally, on Thursday, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell announced he was closing the exchange’s global headquarters in San Francisco until further notice. Powell cited frequent criminal harassment of his employees on their commutes, and blamed District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s "catch-and-release program" for the increase in crime.

A January report from the San Francisco Police Department showed that crime rates, by and large, were up slightly in 2021 from 2020, but still "overall lower ... than pre-pandemic levels."