Elon Musk’s payments service X Money has moved out of invite-only testing and gone live for Premium and Premium+ subscribers across 41 US states and Washington DC, as Senator Elizabeth Warren warns the billionaire’s banking ambitions could pose risks to consumers and the financial system.
The service, built into X – the social media platform formerly known as Twitter – ended its closed trial phase on 27 July and is now available nationwide to paying users wherever X holds money-transmitter licences. New York and Massachusetts have yet to approve the product, leaving those markets excluded from the initial rollout.
X Money combines a deposit account, peer-to-peer transfers and a Visa-branded debit card in a single offering inside the X app. The accounts are backed by a cash-sweep arrangement at Cross River Bank designed to give users up to $10m in Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-linked protection, far above the standard $250,000 federal insurance limit.
High-yield accounts and cashback card
Premium+ customers immediately receive a 6% annual percentage yield (APY) on their X Money balances. Standard Premium subscribers can qualify for the same interest rate once they meet specified direct-deposit conditions, positioning the product as a high-yield alternative to traditional current accounts.
Every account includes a virtual X Card that can be added to Apple Wallet, with users also able to order a personalised physical metal card etched with their X handle. Purchases made with the card earn 3% cash back, while the company says there are no foreign-transaction fees on transfers. New customers are being offered a $15 welcome deposit.
X Money is also promoting free, unlimited transfers between users within the platform. In a post accompanying the launch, the official X Money account described the integration as “Your money, on the world’s most powerful network,” directly linking the product to X’s social reach and Musk’s long-stated aim of turning the service into an all-purpose “Everything App”.
Visa partnership underpins payments push
X first set out its payments strategy in January 2025, announcing Visa as its inaugural partner. Then-chief executive Linda Yaccarino hailed the tie‐up as “another milestone for the Everything App”, while Visa said its Visa Direct network would allow users to “fund and transfer money in real-time with their debit card.”
Those Visa Direct rails now underpin the debit card and money transfer functions that have been extended from the initial Premium+ test group in late June to the broader base of Premium and Premium+ subscribers this week. The internal beta, limited to a subset of higher-tier users, was designed to collect feedback before the national launch.
Behind the scenes, deposits are held at Cross River Bank, a regulated institution that operates a sweep programme dispersing customer funds across multiple partner banks. X says this structure enables FDIC-linked coverage of up to $10m per account, roughly 40 times the standard federal insurance level.
Warren questions regulatory gaps
The rapid expansion has not eased concerns in Washington. Senator Elizabeth Warren has pressed X for answers over its financial-services strategy and the potential risks associated with Musk’s move into quasi-banking activities.
In a letter, she raised particular alarm about what she described as a “suspicious carveout” in the GENIUS Act, the 2025 federal stablecoin law. She argued the provision allows companies such as X to issue stablecoins without facing the same approval processes as traditional issuers, and highlighted Cross River Bank’s past history with FDIC enforcement actions as an additional red flag for regulators.
At present, X Money is strictly a fiat product. There is no confirmed integration of stablecoins or other tokens, despite speculation that digital assets could ultimately sit on top of Musk’s new payments infrastructure.
However, Grayscale Head of Research Zach Pandl has framed the current launch as a first step rather than a finished vision, suggesting the design is a foundation that could support broader capabilities in future.
Next steps and unresolved markets
With Premium and Premium+ users now able to sign up wherever X is licensed, attention is turning to whether the company can extend X Money to all US jurisdictions, particularly New York and Massachusetts, where approvals remain outstanding.
Analysts and industry watchers are also tracking whether and when X will move to connect its payments system to crypto assets, an idea the company has floated since it first pitched a more expansive financial role for the platform.
Musk, who has previously claimed that money itself could “stop mattering” by 2036 once robots and artificial intelligence generate more goods and services than people can use, now faces the more immediate test of convincing regulators and users that X Money can deliver on its promise without undermining existing safeguards in the US banking system.
