Twitter recently secured money transmitter licenses in Michigan, Missouri, and New Hampshire.
The authorized licenses, which were issued between June 29 and July 3, 2023, show how committed Twitter is to adhering to these jurisdictions’ legal standards.
The social media site wants to grow its offering of payment services. While the licenses in New Hampshire and Michigan are referred to as “Money Transmitter Licenses,” the Missouri license is referred to as a “Sale of Checks and Money Transmitter License.”
However, this nomenclature distinction results from state-specific terminologies rather than representing various planned services.
The social media platform can offer transfer services or payment instruments by obtaining money transmitter licenses. These licenses are primarily concerned with providing consumer safeguards for companies that go beyond just simple product and service sales and offer the secure passage of payments between parties.
Although Twitter Payments’ special offers have yet to be made public, the company’s licensing requests in each of the US’s 50 states show its desire to go national.
If and when Twitter Payments launches, the platform will be able to process consumer transactions thanks to the money transmitter licenses, presumably in a way similar to other non-bank services like Stripe, Venmo, and PayPal.
Twitter has been obtaining licenses since it plans to enter the payment services market. The business declared its desire to operate throughout all US states and extra territories by applying for money service business (MSB) licenses with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in November 2022.
The transition to payment services aligns with Twitter’s CEO and CTO Elon Musk’s goal of making Twitter an “everything app.” According to rumors, Musk has been leading initiatives to investigate digital payments.
In April, Musk relaunched Twitter Inc. as X Corp. Although it’s unclear whether the social media platform will include cryptocurrency-related services in its payment plans, the service already supports cryptocurrency tipping since at least February 2022.
It has added extras like NFT profile photos.It is important to note that Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, is associated with Block Inc., which provides the Square payment software that accepts both conventional currency payments and cryptocurrencies.
