Web3 Watch: X calls it quits on NFT profile pics

Plus, a bitcoin moon delivery may not make it

January 14, 2024 10:00 am

Thomas Dutour/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks

X discontinued support for NFT profile pictures this week after first launching the feature in January 2022.

Under the direction of crypto-friendly CEO Elon Musk, the profile pictures became a paid feature, though Musk has seemingly soured on the concept.

Users of the feature opened the app Wednesday to find their formerly-hexagonal profile pictures to be circular once again.

Neither Musk nor X have publicly commented on the reasoning behind the change.

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Ironically, Musk — who became a public voice in the crypto world during the last bull run — inherited the NFT project and saw it killed under his tenure. For crypto-interested X users, hopeful Musk-led crypto integrations have largely not come to pass.

PFP NFTs, or digital art projects meant to be used as social media profile pictures, became a popular use case for collections like Bored Apes and CryptoPunks during NFTs’ 2021 ascension.

Social media companies hopped on the trend, though with the general decline in interest in NFTs, the tech giants followed suit. The end of X’s NFT road follows a similar decision from Meta last year. Elsewhere, Amazon’s reported NFT platform has been slow to develop.

Bitcoin almost goes to the moon

A group including derivatives exchange BitMEX tried to send a private key containing one bitcoin on a NASA-led trip to the moon this week, Macauley Peterson reported.

Unfortunately, the bitcoin may never make it there.

The rocket reached space, but a lander built by Astrobotic experienced a fuel leak, making the payload’s landing on the moon unlikely.

Astrobotic said Friday that it had stemmed the leak quicker than first predicted, and “there is growing optimism that [the spacecraft] could survive much longer than the current estimate.”

For what it’s worth, bitcoin may not be figuratively moon-bound, either, at least in the near-term. The currency had a sluggish second day of spot ETF trading, sliding 11% from its Thursday high.

One interesting stat:

Despite all the excitement about spot bitcoin ETF approval, sales volume on Bitcoin digital art inscriptions fell by over 20% this week, according to CryptoSlam.

Also of note:

A Taproot Wizards-led Ordinal inscription collection is on auction at Sotheby’s to rally support around a proposed upgrade to Bitcoin.

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