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In a bold and audacious move, Elon Musk is pushing X (formerly known as Twitter) to transform the way users manage their finances. His vision is to make X the central hub for users’ entire financial lives, potentially eliminating the need for traditional bank accounts by the end of next year.
Elon Musk has long been vocal about his intentions to expand X far beyond its microblogging origins and turn it into an all-encompassing app that offers a wide range of financial services.
During an all-hands call with X employees this week, audio of which was obtained by The Verge, Musk articulated his vision by stating, “When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life.” He went on to clarify that the scope of X’s financial services would cover anything related to money, be it currency, securities, or other financial assets. “So, it’s not just like sending $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.”
X is already in the process of applying for money transmission licenses across the United States, indicating Musk’s and CEO Linda Yaccarino’s commitment to offering a comprehensive suite of financial features by the close of 2024.
Musk expressed his unwavering confidence in this ambitious plan, stating, “It would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.”
Previously, Twitter had dabbled in financial services, introducing features like tipping to allow users to reward content creators on the platform and enabling content creators to charge subscription fees for exclusive content, such as newsletters.
Musk, however, is determined to take it to the next level, driven by his vision for the original X.com, which he co-founded a quarter of a century ago. He reminisced during the call, “The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000.”
He also noted his disappointment with the trajectory PayPal took after being acquired by eBay, stating, “And for some reason PayPal, once it became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features, which is crazy. So PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July of 2000, so 23 years ago.”
With Elon Musk’s track record of pushing boundaries, X’s evolution into a comprehensive financial services platform is certainly a development to watch closely in the coming months.
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