Crypto Enthusiasts Notice Removal of Iconic Emojis from X Platform
The social application X, owned by Elon Musk, has discreetly eliminated the automatically generated emojis that used to accompany hashtags for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This platform, known for hosting some of the most vibrant cryptocurrency communities, made no public announcement regarding this change as of Friday morning in Europe.
On Friday, early risers within the crypto sphere noted the absence of the familiar emojis when posting “#bitcoin” on X. Further scrutiny revealed that hashtags like #bnbchain and #cryptocom also no longer displayed their respective brand images. Additionally, an emoji for #MAGA, which previously featured a likeness of Republican candidate Donald Trump, was removed just before his appearance at the ongoing Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville.
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These Bitcoin emojis were initially introduced in 2020 under the leadership of Jack Dorsey, the former owner of X, then known as Twitter. Dorsey had aimed to popularize the Bitcoin symbol within Unicode, a text encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium, which supports the digitization of text across the world’s writing systems.
Previously, X (as Twitter) charged companies up to $1 million to add a branded emoji or symbol to a designated hashtag. This feature was intended to help companies distinguish their branding from competitors and generate consumer buzz.
This silent removal of emojis has left many crypto users speculating about the reasons behind the decision and its potential implications for the cryptocurrency community on X.