In the inaugural episode of the Payment Expert Podcast, the team takes a closer look at Elon Musk’s X Money proposal and what his global payments ambitions look like from the outside of the US.
When Elon Musk announced X Money was going to launch in April 2026, with the backing of Visa Direct, it perhaps didn’t go down with as much fanfare as he might have hoped.
Social media platform X currently derives an estimated 70-75% of its income from advertising, but it is a business model which has been under sustained pressure since Elon Musk’s acquisition.
In our inaugural Payment Expert Podcast, news Editor Louis Thompsett is joined by Senior Journalist Callum Williams and Business Journalist Kieran O’Connor to ask the question: is X Money a genuine payments product or a revenue lifeline dressed up as fintech ambition?
Aired every Wednesday, the Payment Expert Podcast will offer a deep dive into the biggest stories of the week, spanning topics including crypto and stablecoin regulation, embedded finance, open banking, fraud, compliance and regulation.
In episode 1, the team consider why Musk’s WeChat comparisons don’t hold up, what the creator economy might actually offer as a more realistic launchpad for adoption, and why trust remains the obstacle that no Visa integration can solve on its own.
Musk has the licences, the infrastructure partnership and the user base. What he doesn’t yet have is a clear answer to the question of why someone would choose to move their money through X rather than the apps they already use.
On regulation, the US Senate quietly attached a CBDC ban to a major housing bill. The team unpacks what that legislative sleight of hand signals about where America’s digital payments future is actually heading, and who stands to benefit from the permanent absence of a digital dollar.
With the House Freedom Caucus pushing for a permanent rather than temporary ban, the US appears to be closing off the central bank digital currency route entirely, leaving the field open to stablecoins and private sector platforms.
And if X Money eventually looks beyond the US, it could run straight into MiCA, and potentially regulators who’ve been waiting for exactly this kind of leverage on platform fraud. The team raises the question no one in Musk’s camp is probably asking yet.
Episode one of the Payment Expert Podcast is available now on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms. To make sure you don’t miss an episode, make sure you’re subscribed to the Payment Expert newsletter.
