Elon Musk’s new payments product, X Money, has entered a limited external beta this week. Actor William Shatner — best known for playing Captain Kirk — shared early screenshots showing the app offers cashback on certain card purchases and advertises a 6% annual percentage yield on deposits.
The screenshots indicate deposits would be held at Cross River Bank, an FDIC member, with coverage up to $250,000 per person. Shatner circulated the images after receiving a $42 transfer from Musk as part of the beta rollout.
X Money is designed to be a central piece of Musk’s “everything app” plan for X, combining payments with private messaging, Grok-powered AI services, creator tools, identity features and more. Musk has described the product as “the place where all money is,” calling it a potential “game changer.” The service moved into external testing after a closed beta that began in at least May 2025; Musk said on Feb. 11 that this external phase would precede a wider global launch for X users.
Shatner has helped expand testing by auctioning some of his beta invites to raise money for charity. With X’s approval, he auctioned 42 X Money beta invites at $1,000 each; winners received a $25 welcome gift card from X and an initial $1 that Musk had sent to Shatner. He later offered 166 more invites under similar terms. Reported eligibility requirements for the beta include U.S. residency, being 18 or older, and maintaining an active X account in good standing. Beta participants may also be eligible to receive a metal X Money debit card, featuring their X username, issued through X’s Visa partner.
Despite Musk’s history of promoting Dogecoin and speculation about crypto features, there are no clear signs cryptocurrencies are integrated into X Money at this stage. The effort marks a return to payments for Musk — he was involved with X.com in the late 1990s before it merged into the company that became PayPal. In recent years, X has obtained money-transmitter licenses in more than 40 U.S. states and registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to enable peer-to-peer payments on the platform.