[DigitalToday reporter Kyung-min Hong] Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, led by Elon Musk, has stepped up its push into financial services. It has begun an external beta test of its payments service, X Money (X Money), in cooperation with actor William Shatner.

TechCrunch reported on March 4 that X has moved to broader market testing by sending beta invitations for X Money to some users. The service had previously been tested only with internal employees.

The invitations were distributed not through a typical process but via an online auction. Proceeds from winning bids will be donated to Shatner's charity that supports children and military veterans. Musk shared Shatner's post on his feed and expressed expectations that X Money would have a large impact on society.

The move is seen as a key step in advancing Musk's so-called Everything App plan. Aimed at becoming a comprehensive financial platform beyond a simple social media service, X Money covers payments, transfers and creator subscriptions. It plans to provide beta participants with a metal check card bearing their username. Through a partnership with Visa, it supports person-to-person transfers, and the in-app interface includes intuitive buttons for deposit, transfer and request alongside tabs for accounts, rewards and activity.

X has also significantly strengthened its expertise as a financial service to boost trust in the platform. Users' deposits are held by Cross River Bank, an FDIC member, and are protected up to $250,000 per person (about 366.57 million won). It has also set up an option to earn up to a 6.00 percent annual percentage yield through direct deposit settings. To support this, X is securing a legal foundation for nationwide expansion by obtaining money transmission licences in more than 40 U.S. states.

This aggressive build-out of infrastructure aligns with Musk's long-term vision to expand services globally. Musk said at a company-wide meeting in February that the service would be expanded worldwide after a limited external beta test, a move that also recreates in modern form the vision of X.com, which he founded in 1999. The industry believes that, like X Chat, which X is recently testing as a separate app, X Money is also likely to be launched as a standalone app to compete with PayPal and Venmo.

Ultimately, the introduction of the payments service is expected to be a major turning point as X evolves beyond a messaging platform into an integrated ecosystem combining payments and commerce. It is the result of Musk's push for financial innovation since he changed Twitter's name to X shortly after acquiring it in 2022, and the X Money beta test is being seen as the first practical step toward realising that ambitious plan.

Here’s a few more screenshots. There’s a debit card with cash back too! pic.twitter.com/yeKE1gXAjQ