Elon Musk is moving closer to launching X Money, a payments and banking platform built into his social media company, as he tries to turn X into a single destination for both communication and everyday financial activity, Bloomberg reports.
The product — three years in the making since Musk purchased Twitter (now X) in October 2022 — would expand X well beyond its roots as a social network.
Early users testing the service describe features including about 3% cash back on certain purchases, a savings rate near 6%, and free peer-to-peer payments. The savings yield is significantly higher than typical U.S. bank rates— 15 times as high as the yield at most U.S. banks — though X has not said whether it will be permanent.
X Money is also expected to include a debit card tied to user accounts and an artificial intelligence tool that helps track spending, organize transactions, and surface financial insights—a personal financial concierge, if you will.
SUPER APP
The goal is to keep users inside the app not just for conversation, but for managing all of one’s own money.
If it works, the platform would bring together social media and financial services in a way no major U.S. company has achieved at scale.
Musk has framed payments as a core pillar of his long-term vision for X, telling employees he wants the platform to become central to users’ daily lives, including how they send, spend, and store money.
Still, the effort faces skepticism from payments experts and analysts.
Some point to execution risks and missing pieces. The platform does not yet offer a seamless one-click checkout experience, which is widely seen as essential for building a strong e-commerce business.
Without that, critics argue, X could struggle to turn user engagement into meaningful transaction volume.
As Richard Crone, founder of Crone Consulting LLC and longtime payment sector analyst, put it: "He [Musk] doeson't have a one-click buy — and he needs that or e-commerce on his site will lag."
Others say the bigger challenge is trust.
While sending money between users is relatively easy to adopt, getting customers to treat X as a primary financial account is far more difficult. That requires reliability, regulatory approval, and confidence in how funds are handled.
The rollout has already been slowed by regulatory hurdles.
Operating a payments system nationwide requires licenses in all 50 states, and while X has obtained banking licenses in 44 U.S. states, the company is still working to secure approvals in several key jurisdictions. Lawmakers in some states have raised concerns about oversight and consumer protection.
Even so, Musk has a built-in advantage: Scale.
X'S CRITICAL MASS
X has hundreds of millions of users, along with a base of content creators who already receive payments through the platform. Those users are expected to transition to X Money, providing an initial layer of activity.
Early testers have already used the system to send payments through profiles and direct messages, suggesting the core functionality is in place.
Many details remain unclear, including pricing, the full range of services, and the timeline for a nationwide launch.
But the strategy is clear: Musk is betting that combining social interaction with financial services will deepen engagement and open new revenue streams.
If enough users adopt it, X Money could quickly move from a side feature to a central part of how the platform operates — and how everyday Americans handle their money.
Newsmax Wires contributed to this report.
Lee Barney ✉
Lee Barney, Newsmax’s financial editor, has been a financial journalist for 30 years, covering the economy, retirement planning, investing and financial technology.
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