The standalone X Chat app isn’t the only new service X is testing this week. The company has also begun offering invitations to specific users to attend X Money payment servicewhich was It is previously tested Internally between X employees. However, these invitations were not distributed in the usual way. Instead, X’s owner, Elon Musk, worked with William Shatner (yes, the actor) to invite people into the beta in exchange for a $1,000 donation to the Shatner Foundation. charity Which supports children’s and veterans organizations.
On X, he was a “Star Trek” actor. Information exchange About the X Money service and its trial invitations, which have been made available Via online auction on Monday. Musk Re-share One of Shatner’s posts on his own feed simply says “X Money.” Musk too Republished Another user posted about X Money, adding: “This is going to be big.”
the AuctionShatner noted that it was done with Musk’s blessing after Shatner received payments from Musk via the X Money app. (A Screenshot It showed that Musk sent him $42, which is a fun sci-fi reference: the number is in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and is the calculated answer to the meaning of life).
X also offered 42 invitations to the X Money beta to those who donated in the auction.
After receiving notification, the winners of the auction You will be able to see A link to the X Money service appears in the app, just below the Premium link. They will also be among the first to receive an X Money metal debit card with their own username from X partner Visa, which helps boost the person-to-person payments aspect of the service.
The addition of X Money to X is part of Musk’s plan to make the social network more of an “app for everything,” offering a variety of features, including private messaging, payments, creator content, subscriptions, video, and more.
Screenshots Shatner posted on X showed the X Money interface with three tabs: Account, Rewards, and Activity, along with buttons for making deposits, sending money, and placing orders. Screenshots showed that users also have the option to set up direct deposit to earn APY. (One screen showed the option to earn up to 6.00% APY.)
User deposits are held by Cross River Bank, member FDIC, and are insured for up to $250,000 per individual, according to a screenshot posted by Shatner.
X Payments itself is not an FDIC-insured bank, but it has been collecting money transfer licenses throughout the United States. X now has licenses In more than 40 US statesAt X’s all-hands meeting in February, Musk told employees that the service would enter a limited external beta in a month or two, before rolling out globally to all users.
With X Chat, the company is not only launching a new link within X, but is testing giving the messaging service its own standalone app. X Money will likely have its own app as well to better compete with others in this space, such as Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App.
Musk’s interest in payments spans decades, having founded an online financial services startup called X.com in 1999, which was later merged into the company that became PayPal. After acquiring Twitter in October 2022, Musk renamed the company X less than a year later, in honor of his early beginnings.
