Elon Musk Slams Twitter NFT Play Amid Ongoing Spambot Activity

Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk took a swipe at Twitter for launching a new feature that allows users to use NFTs from their crypto wallets and add them as their profile pictures.

The billionaire entrepreneur tweeted on Friday that the latest initiative was “annoying” and criticized the social media giant for failing to clean the platform of spambots that post links to fraudulent crypto promotions and giveaways.

“Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread!?” he wrote.

Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread!?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2022

The San Francisco-based company said yesterday that it is rolling out a new feature that will let users verify ownership of the NFTs used as their profile pictures.

Users first need to connect their NFTs via a selection of wallets, including MetaMask, Rainbow, and Coinbase.

For the time being, the new option is only available to users of Twitter Blue, a subscription service with exclusive access to premium features and app customizations. It is also limited to those using the platform on iOS.

Musk complains about Twitter scams

Some of Musk’s followers, however, hit back, saying that the Tesla boss “literally tasked teams of engineers” to make it possible for the electric car manufacturer to begin accepting Dogecoin at Tesla’s online store.

As was the case throughout 2021, when Musk tweeted encouraging posts about Dogecoin, the price of DOGE skyrocketed. Last week was no different either. Following his announcement that users can now spend the popular meme cryptocurrency on Tesla merchandise, Dogecoin rose 16%.

Still, Musk’s concerns around crypto giveaways and scams on Twitter have merit.

For years, phony accounts copy-pasting Musk’s official profile have been set up to reply to his tweets promising to double the amount of Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other cryptocurrencies sent to their wallets.

Beyond that, Twitter accounts of many celebrities and other high-profile persons fell victim to hackers in the past, with criminals promoting fake crypto giveaways.

Despite Twitter taking measures and removing fake accounts, the problem still persists—fake Elon Musk accounts are alive and well.