Elon Musk Launches X Money Beta With 6% Yield

William Shatner received ₱2,456 ($42) from Elon Musk to test X Money, then auctioned 208 beta invites at $1,000 apiece with X's permission.

The Hollywood actor shared screenshots showing X Money offers 6% annual percentage yield on deposits held at Cross River Bank, with insurance covering up to $250,000 per person through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Users get a metal Visa debit card with their X username and can earn cashback on certain purchases. Musk sent $1 to each of the 208 winning bidders, who also received a $25 welcome gift card.

X Money has been in closed beta since at least May 2025 before Musk announced the external rollout in February. He called the product a game changer and said it's intended to be the place where all money is — the central source of all monetary transactions. The platform is part of his everything app vision that includes payments, private messaging, AI chatbot services through Grok, creator content, and identity features.

X secured money transmitter licenses in over 40 US states and registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to launch the product. Only US residents over 18 with active accounts in good standing can access X Money during beta. Musk founded X.com in the late 1990s, which later merged to become PayPal, marking his return to the payments business.

Whether crypto payments will integrate into X Money remains unclear despite Musk's public appreciation for Dogecoin. The limited beta rolled out in early March after Shatner ran two auction rounds — the first offering 42 invites, the second offering 166 invites.