Musk promises that X will replace your bank
‘You won’t need a bank account… it would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.’
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has obtained money or currency transmitter licenses in the following seven U.S. states: Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, and the most recent license was obtained from Rhode Island. These licenses allow X to process payments, including cryptocurrency, and indicate that the company may have plans to support payment processing nationwide, similar to Venmo or his former company, PayPal.
Musk has plans for X to expand beyond social media posts, becoming an ‘everything app,’ using money transmitter licenses. The Rhode Island license, while essential for permitting payments, is also a requirement for offering crypto services.
The company is currently working on locking down money transmission licenses across the US so that it can offer financial services. Musk told employees on October 25, 2023 that he hopes to get the others X needs in “the next few months.”
Though they certainly open the way for offering crypto payments, the state licenses are not limited or unique to that service. In New Hampshire, “‘money transmission’ means engaging in the business of selling or issuing payment instruments or stored value, or receiving currency or monetary value for transmission to another location.” The state also says “an administrator or exchanger that accepts and transmits a convertible virtual currency or buys or sells convertible virtual currency for any reason is a money transmitter under federal regulations …”
Western Union and PayPal have the same state licenses as X, and additional ones in line with the services they offer and the states they serve.
