X taps William Shatner to give out invites to its payments service, X Money

X Chat’s standalone app isn’t the only new service X is testing this week. The company has also begun offering select users invites to its X Money payments service, which was previously being tested internally among X employees. These invites, however, were not doled out in the typical way. Instead, X owner Elon Musk worked with William Shatner (yes, the actor) to invite people into the beta in exchange for a $1,000 donation to Shatner’s charity that supports children’s and veterans’ organizations.

On X, the “Star Trek” actor has been sharing information about the X Money service and its beta invites, which were made available via an online auction on Monday. Musk reshared one of Shatner’s posts to his own feed, saying simply “X Money.” Musk also reposted another user’s post about X Money, adding, “This will be big.”

The auction, Shatner noted, was conducted with Musk’s blessing after Shatner received payment from Musk via the X Money app. (A screenshot showed that Musk sent him $42, a playful sci-fi reference: The number is, in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, the computed answer to the meaning of life.)

X also offered 42 invites to the X Money beta to those who donated in the auction.

After receiving a notification, the auction winners will be able to see a link to the X Money service appear in the app, just below the link to Premium. They will also be among the first to receive the metal X Money debit card with their username from X’s partner, Visa, which is helping power the person-to-person payments aspect of the service.

The addition of X Money to X is part of Musk’s plan to make the social network more of an “everything app,” offering a variety of features, including private messaging, payments, creator content, subscriptions, video, and more.

Screenshots posted by Shatner on X showed the X Money interface with three tabs: Account, Rewards, and Activity, along with buttons for making deposits, sending money, and making requests. Users also have the option of setting up direct deposit to earn APY, the screenshots showed. (One screen showed the option of earning up to 6.00% APY.)

Users’ deposits are held by Cross River Bank, Member FDIC, and are insured up to $250,000 per individual, per a screenshot Shatner posted.

X Money itself is not an FDIC-insured bank, but it has been racking up money transmitter licenses across the U.S. X now has licenses in over 40 U.S. states, and, in X’s public all-hands meeting in February, Musk told staff that the service would enter a limited external beta in a month or two, before going worldwide to all users.

With X Chat, the company hasn’t just launched a new link inside X but is testing giving the messaging service its own standalone app. Potentially, X Money could have its own app as well to better compete with others in the space, like Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App.

Musk’s interest in payments has spanned decades, as he founded an online financial services startup called X.com in 1999, which was later merged into the company that became PayPal. After acquiring Twitter in October 2022, Musk renamed the company X less than a year later, in tribute to his early beginnings.