Elon Musk and X obtaining additional finance licenses

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter and owned by Elon Musk, has obtained payments licenses from several U.S. states, including a currency transmitter license in Rhode Island. The licenses allow for broader payments services to be offered, indicating that Musk may have plans to support payment processing nationwide similar to Venmo or PayPal. The Rhode Island license is also a requirement for offering crypto services. In an FAQ answering common queries, Rhode Island’s Department of Business Regulation specifies that firms requiring the approval include those transmitting money for its customers, including traditional wire transfers (like Western Union) and electronic transfers (like PayPal). The state’s currency transmission license is also required for conducting crypto exchange and custody business, with an exception for fintechs in “very rare cases” where the firm "is registered as a true ‘agent’ of the Rhode Island licensed currency transmitter … and money transmission is not the core profit-making business of the fintech."

As X continues to evolve as a social media application, Musk continues to share that X will eventually become the “everything app” which would include fiat and crypto purchases, trades, custody, and peer to peer payments. In a recent interview, Elon Musk states that he has big plans for X. “X would become the half of the GLOBAL financial system worldwide”.

But what does this this mean for crypto? Elon Musk could bring more crypto adoption and acceptance to the approximately 400 million users worldwide, which would continue to help the crypto industry grow and mature.

Sources:

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/08/31/elon-musks-x-has-licenses-in-multiple-us-states-to-process-payments-including-crypto/

https://cointelegraph.com/news/x-twitter-crypto-payments-rhode-island-licence