X launches banking service X Money in the US – with up to six percent interest and a metal debit card

The deposit accounts are held at Cross River Bank, an FDIC-member institution in New Jersey; standard deposit insurance covers up to $250,000 per depositor. This is evident from the filings and previous reporting.

By spreading deposits across multiple banks, the company says, balances of up to ten million dollars per user can be insured. X prominently advertises this cash-sweep program, aiming to build trust in a new banking product that appears unregulated.

How the account works

In addition, X advertises a cash-sweep program that spreads deposits across a network of partner banks, promoting it with coverage of up to $10 million. Cross River handles the customer relationship, but the funds are parked internally across multiple institutions.

The real acquisition tool is the interest rate. X Money advertises deposit interest of up to six percent – well above the current US key interest rate, which according to reports from April stands at 3.5 to 3.75 percent. Industry observers are therefore asking: it is unclear what risky investments, what aggressive data monetization, or what other tricks X Money or partner bank Cross River intend to use to generate this return when the target key rate is 3.5 to 3.75 percent.

The interest rate as a hook

New customers receive $15 credited to their account at launch. In addition, there is a virtual or physical metal Visa debit card – the "X Card" – with Apple Wallet and Google Pay support, 3 percent cashback on eligible purchases, fee-free withdrawals, and the option to print your X handle on the card.

A closed beta beginning in May 2025 and an expanded test from March 2026 preceded the launch. X Payments holds money-transmitter licenses in 41 states plus Washington, D.C. – unprecedented for a social network previously known only for short messages.

Background: Musk's Everything App plan

Since taking over what was then the microblogging service Twitter in October 2022, Elon Musk has pursued the goal of expanding X into a platform covering as many areas of life as possible. In 2023, during a company-wide meeting, he told employees that all financially related transactions should in future be processed through the company's own system.

The feature forms a central element of owner Elon Musk's plan to expand the platform into a comprehensive application based on the concept of an "Everything App." The model is China's WeChat, which combines messaging, payments, investing, and government services in one app.

Four years after the Twitter takeover, Elon Musk has delivered on the promise he made from the start: since Monday, X has been offering its paying US subscribers on the Premium and Premium+ tiers the banking service X Money – the biggest step yet toward the WeChat-style "Everything App" Musk has been talking about since 2022.

Partner bank Cross River

Cross River positions itself as "compliance-forward" and distinguishes itself from pure BaaS middleware platforms by maintaining direct relationships with regulators. The institution processes loans and payments for more than 80 technology partners, and the client list reads like a Who's Who of the US fintech scene: in its own release from March 2026, Cross River names X, Upgrade, Upstart, Trustly, Stripe, Plaid, DailyPay, Coinbase, Checkout, Bill.com, Best Egg, and Affirm, among others, as partners.

The institution was valued at more than three billion dollars in its Series D in March 2022 – $620 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Eldridge. Cross River is also an experienced crisis partner: when in 2023 three crypto-adjacent institutions – Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank – collapsed within a single week, Cross River stepped in: stablecoin issuer Circle switched to the bank for the automated settlement of USDC.

Criticism and risks

Consumer advocates criticize banking-as-a-service models in general as "rent-a-bank" – a construct in which a federally supervised bank lends its license so that fintechs can circumvent state-level interest-rate caps and other rules. This is precisely the model X is using, with Cross River as the front bank.

Critics see several risks: reports of depictions of abuse of minors and sanctioned users with Premium accounts, a potential conflict of interest due to Musk's role in the dismantling of the CFPB regulator, as well as doubts about the viability of the 6 percent interest rate and about earlier FDIC violations by banking partner Cross River Bank.

Political reactions

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the most senior Democrat on the US Senate Banking Committee, articulated her concerns in a letter to Musk dated the 14th. Warren justifies her warning with X's past record on safety. Concrete consequences of this letter for X Money are not yet publicly known.

The company, known among other things for its Starlink satellite internet service, sold around 555.6 million shares at an issue price of $135 – raising $75 billion. This capital strength is intended, according to X, to secure the scaling of the financial product, even though critics continue to rate the 6 percent return as unrealistic.

ARCHIVE – 13.03.2024, Brandenburg, Grünheide: Elon Musk leaves the Tesla Berlin-Brandenburg auto plant. With X Money, Musk is now expanding his empire – beyond cars and rockets – into a bank for the first time, a development being watched with growing concern by financial regulators and in Washington.