Elon Musk’s X targets stock and crypto trading features in major expansion

Elon Musk’s app X (formerly Twitter) will soon let people trade crypto and stocks straight from their accounts, without ever leaving the platform.

That’s the latest update from Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, who said the company is building out full financial tools for users to control everything from payments to investing.

The comments came during an interview with the Financial Times at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, where she explained how this new plan fits into Elon’s larger plan to turn X into an “everything app.”

“You’ll be able to come to X and be able to transact your whole financial life on the platform,” Linda said, speaking directly about the new investment features. “And that’s whether I can pay you for the pizza that we shared last night or make an investment or a trade. So that’s the future.”

This expansion will allow people to pay for goods, tip creators, and make trades on the same platform they already use for content.

X plans US rollout of X Money and financial tools

X is rolling out its financial services in stages. First up is X Money, a new digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment system that will launch in the United States before expanding to other countries. 

Linda said X Money will support functions like tipping, saving, and buying things directly in the app. X is also partnering with Visa to back the payment system and plans to add an X-branded credit or debit card as early as this year.

Elon bought the company, then called Twitter, in 2022 for $44 billion. Since then, he’s tried to turn it into a catch-all platform modeled after WeChat, the Chinese app that blends messaging, social media, shopping, and finance. Linda said this new expansion isn’t just about payments. She said:

“A whole commerce ecosystem and a financial ecosystem is going to emerge on the platform that does not exist today.”

But adding financial tools means X has to face regulatory challenges. Services like stock trading, crypto transfers, and payments come with licensing issues, money laundering laws, and compliance requirements that are far stricter than anything the company has dealt with before. That hasn’t stopped Elon from pushing forward.

At the same time, X is still trying to fix its ad revenue problem. After Elon’s takeover, most of the platform’s advertisers pulled out, saying they didn’t want their brands next to toxic content or political chaos. Revenue dropped from $4.1 billion in 2022 to $1.9 billion last year, but research firm Emarketer projects it might climb to $2.3 billion in 2025.

X battles with advertisers while pushing AI tie-in

X has also been accused of pressuring brands to come back. The Wall Street Journal reported that companies like Verizon and Ralph Lauren agreed to buy ads after allegedly being threatened with legal action. Linda denied that and said, “It’s unnamed sources, random third-party commenters.” She called the claims “hearsay” and said X never forced anyone to spend money.

To make matters worse, some advertisers at Cannes said they’re still not confident in the platform. One person claimed they were told they had to hit a spending threshold or face a lawsuit. Another said Elon’s close ties with President Donald Trump made them uneasy about saying no to ad deals.

X is already suing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a group of brands and ad agencies, for organizing what it says was an illegal boycott under the pretense of “online safety.”

That lawsuit, filed last summer, accuses them of breaking competition laws. Since then, the company has removed and added brands from the complaint. It dropped Unilever after the company started buying ads again in October.

Still, Linda told advertisers that 96% of pre-acquisition clients are now back. She claimed X is close to recovering its full ad business from 2022. But the people on the ground aren’t fully convinced. Some said they still think the platform is too unpredictable. Others think the content’s still too toxic.

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