The crypto head leaves Twitter amid mass layoffs

Twitter’s crypto division head Tess Rinearson has exited her position amid a massive number of both layoffs and employees quitting in the wake of billionaire Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company, Bloomberg reported. It’s unclear how Elon Musk’s takeover and Rinearson’s departure will impact Twitter’s embrace of NFTs.

Internal strife and staff reduction have been rampant since Musk’s takeover of Twitter was finalized in October. Along with laying off a large number of employees, a senior software engineer, Hamdi Allam, has also left Twitter’s crypto division, Bloomberg reported.

Elon Musk, the new CEO of Twitter, recently told employees that if they couldn’t commit to a strenuous work schedule they should quit.

The social media platform also recently announced a trial program that allows users to tweet NFTs with an embedded click-through button that can then be used to buy and sell digital assets from participating marketplaces.

In January, Twitter launched its long-anticipated NFT profile picture feature for Twitter Blue subscribers. It allowed iOS users to link their crypto wallets to Twitter and display their NFTs in a hexagonally-shaped profile picture as proof of authenticity.

This decision was made under Rinearson, Bloomberg noted. It’s unknown what will happen to Twitter’s blockchain-enabled initiatives given the recent departures, fears over the platform’s collapse, and Musk’s push to overhaul the company.