On Tuesday, X, the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter and owned by Elon Musk, officially launched X Money, a new digital wallet and payments service. This innovative offering aims to facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) money transfers among users. The platform will allow individuals to move funds from their bank accounts to their digital wallets and subsequently transfer money to other users on the platform. X Money is partnering with Visa, positioning itself as a competitor to established payment applications such as Cash App, Venmo, and Zelle.
Instant Fund Transfers through Visa Direct
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, disclosed the platform’s features on Tuesday, indicating that X Money accounts would be available “later this year.” She noted that users would be able to deposit funds instantly into their ‘X Wallet’ using Visa Direct. These funds can then be utilized for P2P transactions within the service.
In addition to the wallet capabilities, X Money will enable users to connect their debit cards to their accounts for seamless P2P payments. Various applications in the U.S., including Cash App and Venmo, currently support these kinds of payments.
Users will also have the flexibility to transfer funds from their X Wallet back to their bank accounts. However, the company has not specified a launch date for X Money in the U.S. Visa confirmed in a recent post that users with X Money accounts in the U.S. will be able to make real-time transactions using their debit cards.
Moving Towards an ‘Everything App’
Following his acquisition of Twitter, Elon Musk has expressed clear intentions to develop the platform into an “everything app,” taking inspiration from Chinese applications like WeChat. His vision includes functionalities such as payments, purchases, messaging, and more.
X has been strategizing to enhance digital payment capabilities for the past few years. In December 2022, Musk informed ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood that X would require regulatory approvals from various U.S. states before it could operate as a money transmitter.
As of Wednesday, a support document from the platform indicates that X has secured licenses from 41 states and is registered as a Money Service Business (MSB) with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
With the launch of X Money, the service could potentially rival PayPal, a company that traces its roots back to the merger of Confinity and X.com, which was operated by Musk in 2000. The entrepreneur’s aspiration to create a comprehensive payments platform has been in the works for over twenty years, and it may soon materialize with the introduction of X Money.
