Elon Musk’s New Hire Sparks Talk of Crypto Integration on X

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has appointed Benji Taylor, a veteran of Aave Labs and Coinbase’s Base network, as its new Design Lead. 

Taylor founded Los Feliz Engineering. Aave Labs, the development firm behind the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) lending protocol Aave, acquired the company in 2023.

Taylor then served as Senior Vice President of Product & Design and then as Chief Product Officer at Aave Labs until October 2025. For the past six months, he led design at Coinbase’s Base.

“I’m honoured to be joining X to lead design. I believe this is the most important platform in the world, and I can’t think of a more exciting place to help shape the future,” Taylor wrote.

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According to X Head of Product Nikita Bier, it took roughly six months of persuasion before the designer agreed to come aboard. With Taylor now in the fold, Bier expressed ambitious plans, saying the goal is to build what he called the “greatest design team in the industry.”

“I met Benji six years ago when I invested in his app: it was one of the most well-designed products I’d encountered.  I knew right away he was on track to become one of the best designers in the world,” he said.

Meanwhile, Taylor’s inclusion on the team has led market watchers to speculate that his onboarding signals potential crypto integration.

It’s worth noting that X Money has been in limited beta testing since early March. Actor William Shatner, one of the beta testers, shared screenshots of the interface.

Musk later said X Money will begin early public access in April. Whether it will have digital asset features at launch or later remains an open question for now.