In a recent post that garnered over 677,000 views in a matter of hours, Nikita Bier, X's head of product, hinted that the company may be working on a solution to address the challenges the crypto industry has faced this year. "Crypto has had a rough year.
Maybe we should launch something to fix it," Bier wrote on Tuesday. This statement comes ahead of the anticipated launch of X Money in April, which will feature peer-to-peer transfers, bank deposits, a debit card, and cashback rewards, all built in partnership with Visa and a licensed subsidiary in over 40 US states. While details about the product's underlying technology remain scarce, it has been described as a fiat-based system with no confirmed crypto functionality.
However, the company has not explicitly ruled out the possibility of incorporating blockchain technology in the future. The hiring of Benji Taylor, Aave's former Chief Product Officer, as the Head of Design at Base, has also sparked speculation about the potential for crypto integration. Bier's post has added to the ambiguity, leaving many to wonder whether X Money will compete with crypto for users or potentially incorporate crypto rails into its payments stack.
As the launch of X Money approaches, it remains to be seen whether the crypto industry's next catalyst will come from within or from external platforms like X.