The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has quietly removed the Bitcoin emoji from its suite of hashtag-triggered emojis. This change, first noticed by members of the cryptocurrency community early Friday, has stirred speculation and concern among users and enthusiasts. The BTC emoji, which appeared alongside hashtags like “#bitcoin” or “#btc,” has been a symbolic feature since its introduction in 2020 under the then-ownership of Jack Dorsey.
Why Did Elon Musk Remove The Bitcoin Emoji?
As of now, there has been no official response from X or a statement from Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in April 2022 and now serves as X’s Executive Chair after Linda Yaccarino assumed the role of CEO in June 2023.
Thus, the unexpected removal has left the community puzzled, especially since the BTC emoji wasn’t the only one removed; the MAGA emoji has also vanished, as well as the BNB and Crypto.com emojis, while the emoji for the precious metal gold remains on X.
This development occurs amidst widespread speculation that Elon Musk might appear alongside Donald Trump at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, which runs until tomorrow, Saturday, in Nashville, Tennessee. Earlier in the week, Musk adopted “laser eyes” for his X profile picture—a symbol popular among BTC supporters—further stirring speculation. Musk has also recently voiced concerns about the potential “value destruction” of the US dollar, likening it to the Zimbabwe Dollar.
Notably, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor posted shortly before Musk changed his profile pc via X “Laser eyes protect you from endless lies”. Four hours later, Musk changed the profile pic to “laser eyes.” CEO of Bitcoin Magazine and organizer of the conference, David Bailey, responded via X “ARE YOU READY,” and further ignited the rumors. Many interpreted this as a sign that Musk could visit the Bitcoin conference and make a major announcement.
The community’s reaction to the emoji’s removal has been one of confusion and concern. A member of the BTC community, Wicked (@w_s_bitcoin), expressed confusion, noting, “At least Jack Dorsey’s Twitter had the Bitcoin hashtag logo…I wonder why Elon Musk chose to remove it?” Currently, the reasons behind the removal remain unclear.
Further clarification came from Autism Capital (@AutismCapital), who tried to ease concerns by mentioning, “FYI—it wasn’t just the Bitcoin hashtag emoji that was removed. Elon mentioned a while back X is getting rid of all the hashtag emojis. It’s not a conspiracy or a knock on Bitcoin. You can sleep easy.”
The BTC emoji made its debut under the ownership of Jack Dorsey, when X was still called Twitter. Dorsey, a staunch supporter of BTC, endeavored to promote the inclusion of the Bitcoin symbol into Unicode, a text encoding standard overseen by the Unicode Consortium that facilitates the digitization of text in all global writing systems.
During that period, Twitter also charged companies as much as $1 million to integrate a branded emoji or symbol following a specific hashtag which explains the emojis for the BNB Chain and crypto exchange Crypto.com.
At press time, BTC traded at $67,355.
