The NFT fad has been dying a swift death, and it seems another nail in the coffin has been uncovered. In 2022, Twitter added profile support for NFTs, allowing paid Twitter Blue subscribers to upload one of their images, which would appear as a hexagon, rather than the traditional circle. Two years later, all mention of that option has been dropped, and it seems users can no longer add NFTs as their profile pic. The platform (now sometimes referred to as X), has not publicly acknowledged the change, so it’s not clear exactly why it was made.ย
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Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in late 2022, his reign has been characterized by changes without warning, as well as features unexpectedly breaking. As such, this could be an intentional change, or a feature that simply broke and hasn’t been fixed. There’s no real way of knowing for sure, so unless Musk decides to offer a statement, users will have to speculate. The hexagon profile shape has also gone away.ย
The Fall of NFTs
The sudden policy change is sure to disappoint some X/Twitter users, but it’s not all that surprising. Interest in NFTs has greatly dropped off from the height of their popularity, as has the actual value of the non-fungible tokens. At one point, celebrities like Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton were openly hawking NFTs on The Tonight Show, while video game companies were looking for ways to cash in on the fad. That’s all changed over the last year, and companies now seem to have moved on to the next big tech bubble.ย
Twitter’s Constantly Changing Policies
X/Twitter has become a shell of its former self. Elon Musk spent $44 billion buying the company, and has since made desperate efforts to recoup that investment. A large number of staffers were let go from the company, and Musk has considered monetizing just about every feature the platform has. It started with the blue check verification system, in a move that frustrated Twitter’s most high-profile users. Since then, it seems a day doesn’t go by where Musk doesn’t decide to startย charging extra for something like Tweetdeck, or mull over dropping the block feature.ย
The constantly changing policies and features of X/Twitter has had some major consequences. In an October 2023 report fromย Axios, it was claimed thatย the social media platform’s usage has plummeted, with metrics like app downloads, monthly active users, and average time spent with the app all being down. As users and advertisers have both abandoned the platform, many have directly attributed the decision to the policies of Elon Musk. It remains to be seen whether the company will be able to turn things around, but the continued lack of openness regarding changes isn’t going to help matters.ย
How do you feel about the latest change to X/Twitter? Have you been frustrated with all the changes? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter atย @Marcdachampย or on Instagram atย @Dachampgaming!
[H/T: TechCrunch]
