- Social media platform X plans to offer Venmo-like payment services to users, allowing users to send and receive money between each other and buy from businesses.
- Documents submitted to regulators show X currently has no plans to use crypto in its payments services, although it’s possible digital assets will be added at some stage given Elon Musk’s past enthusiasm for crypto.
A report from Bloomberg has revealed previously unseen documents submitted to regulators detailing Elon Musk’s plans to add payment services to his social media platform, X, in 2024. Musk plans to bring Venmo-like functionality to the social media app, allowing users to store money in their account, send and receive peer-to-peer payments and make payments to businesses.
Although the documents don’t include any explicit plans to leverage crypto, Musk himself has been an outspoken supporter of crypto and has previously said he would be open to using crypto within X.
Related: Speculation Swirls as X’s New Payments Account Hints at Crypto Integration
Regulatory Documents Give Some Detail On X Payments
Musk has said for years now that he intended to make X the ‘everything app’, and a big part of that has been adding payments functionality. Until now though, it hasn’t been clear what that meant exactly or how much progress had been made towards that goal.
The documents uncovered by Bloomberg BusinessWeek—which are over 350 pages in total and include financial disclosures, business plans and organisational charts—were obtained through a public-records request and shed more light on X Payment’s plans.
A business plan submitted to regulators in Massachusetts last year showed that X plans to use payments services to attract more people to the platform and keep them more engaged. The company apparently doesn’t see payments as a way to substantially increase revenue directly and the fees are expected to be minimal:
However, Twitter Payments does not anticipate charging fees for all of its Services, as the overall goal of the Services is to help increase participation and engagement on the X Platform.
X Payments business plan cited by Bloomberg
Another document cited by Bloomberg said the company “anticipates charging de minimis fees at launch.”
According to X Payment’s website, it currently holds money transmitter licences in 28 US states. Bloomberg’s documents show it intends to launch payments services in the US later this year. The documents also show X Payments had intended to start offering payments services internationally this year, but this plan was delayed due to regulatory hurdles.
Payment functionality on X could lead to an increase in advertising revenue (currently advertising makes up about 90% of the app’s revenue) if it becomes easier for users to quickly buy products they see advertised on the platform.
There is also some talk that X could eventually feature banking services such as deposit accounts, allowing users to earn interest on the funds stored in their X accounts.
Wen X Use Crypto?
With all this talk of Elon Musk and payments surely crypto is involved somewhere right? Right?
Bloomberg’s report cited a document X submitted to regulators in the US state of Maine earlier this year that said “that it has no plans to let users send and receive virtual currencies.”
Related: Elon Musk Pays Tribute to DOGE’s Kabosu and Remembers Harambe on Anniversary
Having said that, Musk has famously been enthusiastic about crypto in the past, especially the memecoin Dogecoin, and has previously expressed openness to using crypto in X. However, he also said in a X Space late last year he doesn’t think Bitcoin is suitable for payments and that he doesn’t think about crypto much these days:
I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is like gold. Bitcoin is not good for payments.
Elon MuskSo wen crypto used for payments on X? Don’t hold your breath.
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