Twitter’s Tip Jar is rolling out globally with a new bitcoin option

Beginning today, Twitter will open up its Tip Jar system to all users around the globe. Well, all users on the iOS version of the app, that is — Android users will have to wait a little longer for the feature. Twitter says Tip Jar will be making its way to the Android app “soon.”

The Tip Jar is exactly what it sounds like. When enabled, a new Tip Jar icon will appear on a user’s profile. Twitter isn’t handling any of the payment processing on the platform, so instead users can select from a variety of options — Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, PayPal, and Venmo — for their tips. You can choose to display as few or as many of those options as your profile as you’d like.

A new tipping option that wasn’t available in the beta version of Tip Jar is rolling out today, too: cryptocurrency. Users can now link their Twitter account to a Strike wallet for both sending and receiving bitcoin. As with all other tipping options, Twitter doesn’t take a cut of funds being exchanged — but it will, of course, appreciate your continued, rapt attention.

Linking up with crypto — Bitcoin tipping is the first concrete way in which Twitter has implemented cryptocurrency in its platform. It comes as no surprise, really. Founder Jack Dorsey has been praising cryptocurrency for a very long time, and he’s even mentioned to investors that he wants crypto to be a “big part” of Twitter’s future.

Bitcoin tipping is big news in and of itself, but we’d bet it’s only the very tip of where Twitter will take crypto implementation in the future. Already the company has hinted at a badge of some sort for confirming your avatar is a legitimate NFT you purchased, for example. The blockchain would be a perfect match for Twitter’s decentralized Bluesky project.

Monetization abounds — The Tip Jar is the first full-scale monetization feature Twitter has made available to its full user base, but it’s just one fragment of a much larger plan to motivate creators and others to use the social network to make money. Subscription program Super Follows, while still in testing mode, has been well-received by users, Twitter says. And then there’s the network’s audio-only Spaces feature, which now allows users to sell tickets to their virtual events.

Twitter already has an attentive and loyal user base. Now the plan is to entice creators — and the general population — to spend more time using it. And money might just be the perfect motivator.