Twitter dives into crypto and blockchains with new hire, whole new team

Social network Twitter has hired someone to run a whole new team that will focus on crypto, blockchains, and more. But it isn't immediately clear why.

Tess Rinearson made the announcement in a tweet yesterday, saying that they will "lead a new team focused on crypto, blockchains, and other decentralized technologies." That will apparently not just mean cryptocurrencies, though — so maybe don't expect to be using your Twitter account to trade just yet.

Rinearson also says that the first order of business will be to work out how Twitter can support creators in a world that involves virtual goods and currencies — that likely means NFTs and whatnot. But what that will actually look like isn't yet clear.

Twitter diving into this kind of thing is undoubtedly an interesting move and it's fair to say that the social network is no longer just somewhere we go to see what our friends are up to. While arguably not the best iPhone app for reading tweets, the official Twitter app continues to grow — the recent release of Twitter Blue shows how the company intends to make the app more than somewhere to read 280-character messages.

Whatever the new team is set to work on, all eyes will be on it and Twitter to see what comes as a result of this move.