According to Coindesk, Elon Musk’s X has received licenses in multiple US states to process crypto payments. Musk said that he’s planning to expand X beyond social media, changing it to an ‘everything app’.
Recently, we saw a newly created account named X Payments. It has a gold checkmark, which indicates the proof of itself being an official business. The account has achieved over 125k followers without posting anything.
Some crypto experts have come forward and made speculations about peer-to-peer payments getting enabled on the platform. This has already caused around a 10% hike in Dogecoin’s price. Some recent reports have found the X CEO hinting at the potential launch of this feature by mid-2024.
There are several existing market players providing similar services, and we call them crypto payment gateways. The current crypto payment gateway market stands at over USD 20 billion, which may be joined by X soon. So serving as one of the most popular crypto payment gateways, we dropped our predictions on how X will perform in the crypto payment market.
About X Payments
Experts say that X may support cryptocurrency payments soon. It may allow individuals to accept payments in crypto. According to sources, X may team up with Stripe, an Ireland-America-based crypto payment gateway to execute its crypto payment feature.
Initially, crypto payouts may take place on the Polygon network (because of its low fees). Metamask, Coinbase Wallet, and Rainbow might be compatible wallets. This indicates the support for popular cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, ERC-20-based tokens (USDC & USDT), Binance Smart Chain, Bitcoin, etc.
Initially, this payment feature may support USDC only. According to Stripe, creators can hold their balance on the Polygon network once they start receiving their USDC earnings. This balance can also get bridged to Ethereum to perform crypto exchanges. We can expect more cryptocurrencies to be added to this list based on compatible crypto wallets.
Factors where Coinremitter thinks X may stand out
Faster Transactions:
As the X CEO’s other firm is already accepting payments, we can expect a smooth and fast processing of crypto transactions here. Also, there are not going to be intermediaries here, which will eliminate a step and ensure faster transactions. The Polygon network can handle over 60,000 transactions per second with an impressive block time of just 2.2 seconds.
Greater Global Reach:
X records approximately 350 million monthly global users on the platform. The total number of verified X accounts has crossed 4,20,000. Such impressive stats show positive signs for this feature to grow rapidly between individuals. This may also help individuals find merchants or organizations to make crypto payments or donations easily.
New Monetization Opportunities:
Though this is not sure, X may allow creators to monetize their content and get paid in crypto. They can enable subscription purchases for crypto holders and choose to get paid in crypto. This may allow a massive number of creators to earn their rewards in crypto.
Fees:
Initially, the entire payment system may take place on the Polygon network, so we can see quite competitive fees for processing crypto transactions. The base transaction fee for USDC transactions on the Polygon network is 0.5 USDC.
Account Security:
Since X is a well-known social media platform, account security should not be a concern. Hence, X’s crypto payments might be limited to verified accounts, but they are expected to get some additional security features.
Analyzing its social media platform, verified users can enable text message-backed two-factor authentication to secure their accounts. We can expect the same or higher level of security if X starts providing crypto payment services.
The factor where Coinremitter thinks X may fall short
Education:
Millions of users are there on X. A noteworthy number of X accounts must be handled by merchants. Though there are so many crypto communities on that platform, still the crypto education of X users can be debatable.
Since X is a social media platform, anyone can post his/her thoughts there. Several users may get misled by false information related to crypto, which is something not to be ignored. According to a report, retweets on false news are 70% faster than ones on true news, which is alarming. Educating individuals is going to be a big challenge for X authorities.
Coinremitter’s Final Verdict
Despite some cautions, X entering the crypto payment space may be quite happening in the crypto world. It may grab lots of headlines and of course, influence a lot of individuals as well. However, the team is definitely going to face more different challenges than any other crypto payment platform.
If the crypto education doesn’t backfire and if X overcomes some other potential challenges successfully, the crypto space may witness a new boost, and crypto payment gateways may get a tough competitor.
[Disclaimer: The article just shows the author's perspective. Actual features may vary when X launches the payments feature.]