Elon Musk asks why Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin left Twitter

People • March 25, 2024, 4:47AM EDT

Published 1 minute earlier on

UPDATED: March 25, 2024, 4:52AM EDT

Quick Take

Elon Musk asked why Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin left X.
Buterin has been active on Farcaster, a crypto-centric Twitter-esque social media platform.

Elon Musk asked today why Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin left X, the platform he acquired and renamed from Twitter.

Musk's question came as a reply to X account Autism Capital, who shared their opinion that "Vitalik needs to get back on X."

Buterin has been active on Farcaster, a crypto-centric Twitter-esque social media platform. "Farcaster feels like it's gotten to the point where it's quite usable as a Twitter alternative for lots of people," he wrote in February, adding: "The channels thing actually makes it *better* in many ways in my opinion."

Farcaster garnered significant attention last month. The launch of Frames — embeds that effectively turn Farcaster-based posts into interactive mini-apps — helped launch the platform's daily active users to new highs. This, in turn, saw an increase in revenue. It also shipped support for Solana addresses last month.

"Farcaster isn’t going to win the culture war," Autism Capital opined. "If he wants Ethereum to shine he should engage more on [X], not sequester himself with his chosen peers on an island. He will have far more impact if he engages the bigger community here."

Buterin has nearly 180,000 followers on Farcaster, where his account is tied to his Ethereum Name Service address, vitalik.eth. For comparison, he has 5.2 million followers on his X account — where he still posts, though somewhat infrequently.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.

About Author

Adam is the managing editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He is based in central Europe and was a managing editor and podcast host at the crypto exchange OKX's former research arm, OKX Insights. Before that, he co-founded BeInCrypto.com, which he elevated into one of the leading crypto media brands at its peak as the editor-in-chief. Earlier, he served as the editor-in-chief at Bitcoinist.com. Before joining the blockchain and crypto industry, he worked for Looper.com, Grunge.com and SVG.com. He tweets via @XBT002 and can be emailed at [email protected].