‘9/11 for the most annoying ppl on this app’: Twitter pulls the plug on NFT profile pictures
X quietly removed support for NFT profile pictures from its premium subscription offerings on Wednesday, according to media reports. A TechCrunch story noted that the move came at the same time as X CEO Elon Musk was unveiling new plans for the company in 2024, like payment processing and a rollout of more AI features.
Users on X, which is often overrun by crypto and NFT scammers and boosters, quickly rejoiced at the news, with many joking that the only people who wouldn’t be happy about it are irritating NFT boosters.
“this is 9/11 for the most annoying ppl on this app,” wrote @SaeedDiCaprio.
“NFTs are gone and no one cares about them, goodbye ????????????” reacted @mrpyo1.
“NFT - No Fucking Thanks,” added @Schmiznurf, who quickly got a reply from a crypto bot shilling an undefined service.
NFT profile pictures, which were rolled out for Twitter Blue subscribers in January 2022, coincided with a market peak for the crypto products in early 2022. At the time, transaction volume for crypto reached a staggering $12.6 billion. NFTs, which stands for non-fungible tokens, are crypto assets often marketed as the license for “ownership” of a unique piece of artwork. Popular iterations have included “series” of NFTs around a certain theme, like a “bored ape,” or egg tokens for uncompleted video games.
NFTs, often boosted (or shilled, depending on who you asked) by online influencers, initially sold for eye-popping sums (the most expensive “Bored Ape” NFT went for $3.4 million in October 2021, and one YouTuber claimed to have used his Bored Ape NFT as collateral for a mortgage on a $4.1 million house). But the cryptocurrency market collapsed in 2022, wiping out around $2 trillion worth of value.
That collapse was so bad that by December 2022, a company sprung up buying worthless NFTs to help wrung-out “investors” write off the bad dream as a tax loss.
Many posters reacting to the NFT profile picture news reveled in schadenfreude over the policy change, which they saw as an acknowledgement of the fact that NFT hype is over and, hopefully, won’t be coming back.
“NFT bros are shaking rn,” posted @_oddify. “‘How will people know I spend 5 figures on this ugly picture of an Ape.’”
“Dw they'll tell you,” replied @LukeTew.
“5 figures?” asked @WhitestWizard. “Some people paid 6.”
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