Tech titan Elon Musk is no stranger to announcing ambitious plans. This time around, the world’s richest man will turn his social platform X into a “super app,” like WeChat in China and Telegram. Musk will integrate trading and investment features into X, allowing users to make payments, invest in stocks and crypto, and trade within the platform.
X will be a one-stop platform where users can conduct their traditional chatting, stream content, shop, make payments, and now trade and invest. Integrating trading and investment services will be a game-changer for both traditional investors and the crypto world. In addition, the social platform will integrate debit/credit card payments, which will turn X into a complete financial suite. Users can do everything in the app without leaving.
A Bold Move for Musk and His Ambitious Team
Since his acquisition in 2022, Musk has envisioned turning X into an “everything app” like WeChat. That vision is taking shape now with the integration of financial services. Now, users can invest, manage, and trade cryptocurrencies and stocks without leaving the application.
Musk, a pro-crypto advocate, aims to bridge the gap between digital and traditional finance, creating a broader ecosystem that encompasses both worlds. This bold move indicates Musk’s revolutionary vision to reshape X into an even better app than WeChat, which has yet to offer crypto services.
Telegram was the first social media platform to integrate crypto into its fold by partnering with the TON Foundation. Integrating crypto services onboarded billions of users, which helped to accelerate crypto adoption and the promotion of the TON digital asset. Musk is planning something similar, but with an even bigger vision to launch X-branded debit/credit cards.
The Implications of Super App on Crypto
With X boasting hundreds of millions of users globally, the platform could be a massive onboarding funnel for crypto users. X could finally move from being a social media platform to a new demographic for Web3 enthusiasts. Besides, we could see a surge in crypto-enabled payments, thanks to debit and credit cards. Users can finally pay in their favorite digital coin via their X wallet. Not to mention that Musk can finally bring the dream of integrating DOGE payments into reality.
Also, X could bridge the divide between traditional finance and DeFi by evolving into a combination of Fintech and crypto. Web2 users unfamiliar with blockchains, wallets, and private keys will simply click a few buttons to invest or send, as they would normally do on a banking app. This seamless onboarding eliminates the technical barrier involved with crypto. Not only will X bring true decentralization into a user-friendly platform, but it could normalize the use of crypto assets for the average user in a traditional way, which several standalone crypto apps have failed to deliver.
Finally, creators will have more monetization options with crypto in the fold. Audiences could pay for newsletters and subscriptions with crypto, and there could also be NFT-backed memberships. This opens a new earning model, especially for those outside the United States.
X Becoming the Future of Social + Finance?
X’s move to integrate trading and investment reflects a larger trend in technology, where social media, commerce, and decentralized finance are converging. Meta failed with the Diem project, but Telegram’s success and hopefully X, prove that social platforms are racing to become the “super app.” Crypto is gradually becoming an infrastructure for financial success, and social platforms are taking advantage of it.
However, building an “everything” app may pose regulatory challenges and raise data and privacy concerns. For instance, the SEC and CFTC may knock on X’s doors for offering trading and payment services. Given that X will manage user wallets, it creates privacy concerns. Furthermore, it deviates from the promise of true decentralization widely preached in the crypto space.