Authored by Helen Partz via CoinTelegraph.com,

X Money, the payment and banking app tipped by Elon Musk in 2022 after he acquired Twitter, has started beta testing, Musk confirmed in an X post on May 25.

Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, a fan X account focused on Elon Musk and Tesla, took to X on May 25 to report that Musk has confirmed that X is “launching X Money soon.”

Source: Elon Musk

The billionaire businessman subsequently jumped on the X thread to confirm the news, writing that the test will be a “very limited access beta at first.”

“When people’s saving are involved, extreme care must be taken,” he wrote.

X Money expects launch in 2025

Musk’s confirmation comes amid X Money’s planned launch this year, according to the platform’s X account.

Source: X Money

Musk’s silent confirmation of X Money trials followed a series of reports suggesting the platform may launch this year based on alleged software code leaks in January.

X has been actively working to obtain multiple transmitter licenses for X Money across the United States, having secured 41 such licenses at time of publication, according to the Nationwide Multi-State Licensing System.

X Money plans date back to 2022

Some of the early public indications of Musk’s plans to integrate payments into X date to October 2022, when Musk referred to his $44 billion Twitter acquisition as “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”

In 2023, Twitter rebranded to X, with CEO Linda Yaccarino disclosing that the social media app planned to feature “unlimited interactivity,” support multiple media formats, and feature payments and banking. At the time, many speculated that the platform would likely support cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

The payment platform was reportedly expected to be launched in mid-2024.

The platform apparently gathered more steam with US President Donald Trump taking office in January and appointing Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency’s Workforce Optimization Initiative (DOGE).

Heavily involved in administration through DOGE, Musk quickly received pushback from US officials like US Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who criticized X’s payment platform plans in February. 

“Musk has lost money hand over fist on X. So he has this idea of X becoming a big money platform where he would get everyone’s personal financial data,” Warren said, referring to Musk’s efforts to dismantle her agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.