Elon Musk is advancing his initiative to transform the platform once known as Twitter, now rebranded as X, into an “everything app” inclusive of its proprietary payments system. In late November, the company secured three additional money transmitter licenses in South Dakota (on November 27), Kansas (on November 28), and Wyoming (on November 30), bringing the total count of states permitting the company’s involvement in money transfers to 12.
Previously, the company had obtained money transmitter licenses in Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, all granted within the current year, starting with New Hampshire on June 29. Additional licenses were acquired in July (Arizona, Michigan, Missouri), August (Georgia, Maryland, Rhode Island), and September (Iowa, Mississippi).
These licenses are linked to a business entity named “X Payments LLC,” previously known as “Twitter Payments LLC,” which will oversee money transfer operations at X. Musk confirmed these developments in a post on X, responding to an article by The Street that highlighted the South Dakota license addition on November 27.
While Musk’s only comment on the new registrations was “Progress,” he has previously outlined his intentions to transform X into a payment platform. Musk envisions X, formerly Twitter, as a space where users can send money within the platform, withdraw funds to authenticated bank accounts, and possibly, in the future, to a high-yield money market account, encouraging users to retain funds within X. This strategic shift would position X in competition with PayPal, a company Musk attributes to co-founding through its merger with X.com.
The move into payments is also integral to X’s broader entry into the creator economy. Users with a minimum of 500 followers and 5 million organic post impressions over the past three months can become eligible for ad revenue sharing.
However, X’s recent ability to monetize through ads has faced challenges due to an advertiser exodus prompted by Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic post on the platform. Brands withdrew their campaigns after reports of ads appearing next to hate speech, resulting in the loss of major advertisers, including Apple, Disney, IBM, Paramount, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Comcast/NBCU, and Walmart. The departure of Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media deal also dealt a blow to X’s monetization plans. Musk, in response to the setback, lashed out at Hilton. To recover, X plans to focus on small business advertisers and intends to make Musk’s new AI, Grok, available to X’s paid subscribers as an additional revenue source.
