X Money was unveiled on Tuesday by Elon Musk’s X, the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter. The new digital wallet and payments service is set to enable users to send and receive money, in a peer to peer (P2P) system. Users will be able to transfer money from their bank account to a digital wallet, then transfer funds to another wallet on the platform. X Money will work with US-based payments firm Visa, and the service is expected to compete with apps like Cashapp, Venmo, and Zelle.
X Money to Use Visa Direct for Instant Fund Transfers
X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced details of the new platform on Tuesday, stating that support for X Money accounts would arrive “later this year”. The platform has partnered with Visa, and users will be able to instantly transfer funds into their ‘X Wallet’ using Visa Direct, she added. These funds can be used to make P2P payments on the service.
In addition to moving funds into the digital wallet, X Money will also allow users to link their debit card to their account and make P2P payments on the platform, the CEO said in the post. P2P payments are currently supported by various apps in the US, from Cashapp to Venmo (or even Apple Pay Cash).
Users will also have the option to transfer funds (presumably from their X Wallet) to their bank account. There’s no word from the company on exactly when X Money will be available to users in the US. Visa said in a post that US–based X Money account users would be able to make real time transfers using a debit card.
One Step Closer to an ‘Everything App’
After purchasing Twitter and rebranding it to X, Elon Musk made his plans for the platform clear. The billionaire plans to build X into an “everything app” inspired by Chinese apps like WeChat with support for making payments, making purchases, messaging and other functionality.
X has been working on adding support for digital payments for the past couple of years now. In December 2023, Musk told ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood that X would require approval in the form of licences from several US states, before it could begin operations as a money transmitter.
As of Wednesday, a support document for the payment platform reveals that X has received licences from 41 states, and that X Payments LLC is also registered as a Money Service Business (MSB) with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
X Money could eventually compete with PayPal, the payment services company that was formed after Confinity merged with the Elon Musk-run X.com bank in 2000. The billionaire has had plans to launch a payments platform for over two decades, and they could finally come to fruition later this year with the launch of X Money.