Is 2025 the year that X (formerly Twitter) implements its ambitious "everything app" strategy? According to an announcement by CEO Linda Yaccarino on New Year's Eve, the next step, X Money, is on its way after a year of speculation. The big question now is, what will this new centerpiece of the X evolution look like?

The aim of X Money is to expand user capabilities far beyond traditional social interactions, embracing a model similar to China’s WeChat or Telegram, which blends messaging, shopping, and money transfers.

Musk spoke of the vision back in 2023, “You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so usable and helpful to daily life, and I think if we can achieve that, or even get close to that at X, it would be an immense success.”

Will X Money Include Crypto?

The company told regulators in early 2024 that it has no plans to let users send and receive cryptocurrencies. But times have definitely changed, and rumors online are heating up about several possible inclusions.

Front runners are Bitcoin and Dogecoin. Stablecoins could also be considered for their reliability, with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently tweeting he believes USDC could be a perfect fit.

It isn't outside the realm of possibility that X could even launch its very own coin or a kind of hybrid in-app payment currency like Telegram Stars.

Telegram Leading The Way

Telegram is a number of steps ahead of X. According to the New York Times, the app has nearly 1 billion users, including 12 million subscribers who pay about $5 a month for added features. It also pulls in considerable revenue from advertising.

In 2024, in fact, it turned a profit, apparently finding a privacy versus content moderation balance that keeps advertisers happy. Add to this momentum to the new partnership between The Open Network (TON) and Tether, and Pavel Durov's Telegram already feels like the everything app (and more) Musk aspires to.

Durvov said, "Our innovations in monetization this year (Stars, Gifts, Giveaways, Mini Apps, the Affiliate Platform, Telegram Business, and Telegram Gateway) demonstrate that social media platforms can achieve financial sustainability while staying independent and respecting users' rights."

Looser Regulations Ahead

A significant hurdle X faces in its path to becoming a super app is regulatory compliance. After all, that's what killed Meta's attempt at a blockchain payments solution. "Diem" co-creator David Marcus said the project ended after political pressure from United States regulators. “There was no legal or regulatory angle left for the government or regulators to kill the project," he said on X.

While X Payments LLC has successfully obtained money transfer licenses in 33 U.S. states, the absence of a license in New York remains a challenge. Nevertheless, the progress made points to X’s potential to rival established financial platforms like PayPal by making digital transactions as commonplace as tweeting.

With upcoming political changes and supportive stances on cryptocurrency from President Donald Trump and his newly appointed SEC Chair Paul Atkins, regulation concerns might become a thing of the past. If so, X Money's integration into the global financial system with the inclusion of cryptocurrency could be timely.

X Money holds the potential to revolutionize peer-to-peer payments by incorporating cryptocurrencies into everyday transactions, a feat no major social platform has quite achieved yet. And with access to almost 600 million active monthly users, it will be a total game-changer, if Musk decides to do it.

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