X Plans to Launch ‘X Money’ in Limited Form This Year

While Elon Musk plans to turn X into a center of paymentfrom which many extended functions will flow, has apparently been delayed initial approval processX is still pushing forward with a concept it now calls “X Money” as opposed to “X Payments.”

Earlier this week, in an announcement welcoming the new year, X CEO Linda Yaccarino noted that X Money would be among several launches planned for the coming months.

I’m not sure any of this will “connect you in ways never thought possible.” But Hyperbole aside, the mention of X money suggests that X is still pushing ahead with it, despite falling short of Musk’s original launch timeline 2024.

This is at least partly because X could not get a money transmitter license in New Yorkwhich Musk himself identified as a key country for initial payments.

X was granted licenses to transfer payments to 38 US states so farbut X withdrew its application for a license in New York early last year, after it legal submission it was made in opposition to his pressure for payments, which called into question “ability and character” of X to hold such authority.

The main concern stated in that application is that X has “worrisome and deep ties” to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, due to the fact that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman investor in Musk’s X project. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the complaint states, has a long history of brutality and repression, which it claims was “incited and enabled” by the platform itself.

This appears to have hindered X’s ability to gain approval in all US states. But now, according to new discoveries in the application’s backend codeX plans to move forward with X Money anyway, by initially launching it in select US states.

As you can see in these code snippets, X has added notes regarding the availability of X money “in your country”. Which suggests that X is now looking at regional rather than national representation as it works to address perceived issues in regions it disapproves of.

This would allow Xu to launch the project more quickly, although the limited availability will significantly limit usage. And that’s before X even starts considering an international launch, where Elon Musk is divisive political views appear likely to present significant regulatory challenges in approval for payment licensing.

So X Money is coming, but probably only to 38 US states. And after that, it may or may not be enabled in others, while international expansion is seemingly out of the question at this stage.

This means that Elon’s “all apps” plan will be severely hampered, and it seems a bit arbitrary to launch the option in a limited form, given that the audience most likely to benefit from it is outside the US

As a quick recap, Elon’s “all apps” vision for X stems from the ubiquity of WeChat in Chinawith Chinese users effectively using WeChat as their digital identity for all types of transactions. For a basic comparison, wherever you would use your credit card, most Chinese people use WeChat instead, which provides citizens with various benefits in terms of convenience, and also establishes WeChat as a fundamental tool for daily interactions.

Back in 2000, while Musk was working in the burgeoning digital payments space, he came up with his own “all apps” plan.which he initially presented as a future roadmap for the development of PayPal. The PayPal team it didn’t work with this oneand it’s been stuck in Elon’s mind ever since, and he remains committed to the concept’s potential as a transformative shift in the banking/payments space.

Although it’s worth noting that the same approach didn’t work for anyone else.

Meta also tried to follow WeChat’s lead and establish Messenger as a basic framework for transactions (twiceactually), but it never caught on with Western consumers, although it was also tried payments on WhatsApp in emerging marketsbut was met with pushback from regulators.

As such, the prospects for Musk’s vision don’t appear to be all that good, while broader distrust of Musk and the X platform will also limit options beyond these licensing restrictions.

But maybe, if there’s some way Musk and Co. can facilitate free, easy in-app transactions, there is an opportunity for X Money, at some level.

I suspect the scope of this will be far more limited than Musk anticipates, even if he gets full approval from every region, though that won’t matter if Musk’s own actions continue to raise questions among the approval groups.

So you may or may not be able to access X Money in 2025.

But anyway, I doubt it will be a big deal for most users.