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The world’s richest man, Elon Musk.<\/p>\nThe world’s richest man, Elon Musk.<\/p>\n
More than two decades after his turbulent exit from PayPal, tech billionaire Elon Musk is once again stepping into the payments arena\u2014this time with a product that analysts say could challenge the very empire he helped create.<\/p>\n
At the center of this shift is X Money, a planned digital wallet embedded within Musk\u2019s social media platform, X. <\/p>\n
The service, still in beta, is designed to integrate payments, messaging, and commerce into a single interface\u2014mirroring the \u201csuper app\u201d model popularised in Asia. <\/p>\n
According to Mizuho financial analyst Dan Dolev, the platform has the \u201cpotential to disrupt U.S. payments,\u201d a view that accompanied his recent downgrade of PayPal stock after two years of bullish sentiment.<\/p>\n
The disruption thesis rests largely on scale and integration.<\/p>\n
X is estimated to have between 500 million and 600 million monthly active users globally, according to Statista. <\/p>\n
That reach significantly exceeds the roughly 100 million active accounts on PayPal\u2019s peer-to-peer platform, Venmo. <\/p>\n
Analysts argue that even modest adoption of X Money among existing users could translate into a sizable payments network almost overnight.<\/p>\n
Unlike standalone payment apps, X Money is being built into a broader ecosystem. <\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s ambition to transform X into an \u201ceverything app\u201d means payments would not operate in isolation but as part of a continuous user experience\u2014embedded in conversations, content, and commerce. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe playbook seems clear,\u201d Dolev noted in a client report, pointing to models such as China\u2019s WeChat Pay and Alipay, where communication and financial transactions coexist seamlessly.<\/p>\n
If successful, this approach could turn social engagement into direct transaction flow, bypassing traditional checkout processes that companies like PayPal rely on.<\/p>\n
That shift poses a direct threat to PayPal\u2019s core business, particularly its branded checkout service, which remains a major driver of revenue.<\/p>\n
“Musk has a broader reach than PayPal and Venmo, the payments
\napps that offer a social experience,” noted Dolev.<\/p>\n
By enabling in-app purchases and peer-to-peer transfers, he notes X Money could divert transaction volume away from external payment gateways. <\/p>\n
Analysts warn that this could erode PayPal\u2019s \u201ccrown jewel\u201d segment, especially as the company already faces slowing growth. <\/p>\n
X Money is also using aggressive incentives to attract users.<\/p>\n
Early beta participants report features such as deposit accounts offering up to 6% annual percentage yield\u2014well above typical U.S. savings rates\u2014alongside cashback rewards and integrated financial services like payroll deposits and transfers.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s re-entry into fintech is not without historical resonance.<\/p>\n
In 1999, he co-founded X.com, an early online banking venture that later merged with Confinity to form PayPal.<\/p>\n
Though he was eventually ousted as CEO, the company went on to dominate digital payments. <\/p>\n
Now, with X Money, Musk appears poised to revisit that space with a more expansive vision\u2014one that leverages social media scale to reshape how users interact with money.<\/p>\n
While analysts caution that any impact on PayPal is unlikely to be immediate, the long-term implications are harder to ignore. <\/p>\n
If X succeeds in converting its vast user base into active financial participants, it could redefine digital payments\u2014and challenge the dominance of a company Musk once helped build.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world’s richest man, Elon Musk. More than two decades after his turbulent exit from PayPal, tech billionaire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[156044,342,111,139,69,2737,30010,26910,179780,136824,145,26911,156043,26909],"class_list":{"0":"post-387082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-kenya-news","9":"tag-mobile","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-star","14":"tag-star-news","15":"tag-star-news-kenya","16":"tag-star-newspaper","17":"tag-star-newspaper-kenya","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-the-star","20":"tag-the-star-kenya","21":"tag-the-star-newspaper"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}