
Elon Musk, the billionaire space rocket builder and creator of the Tesla brand of electric vehicles, announced on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, that he has teamed up with Visa to create X Money Account, a peer-to-peer payment system.
Perhaps not to be outdone by his friend, President Donald J. Trump, through the Trump Media and Technology Group Corporation (TMTG), made a financial splash of his own a day later, announcing a partnership with Charles Schwab, to launch Truth.Fi, a financial services and financial technology strategy company.
“We look forward to launching Truth.Fi, introducing TMTG’s investment vehicles, and unlocking synergies,” said TMTG CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes.
Truth.Fi is expected to receive an investment of up to $250 million, to be custodied by Charles Schwab, a financial services company, to develop traditional investment vehicles, customized separately managed accounts, and exchange-traded funds, and invest in cryptocurrencies or crypto-related securities.
President Trump has his own cryptocurrency, TrumpCoin, that was launched January 17, 2025.
“Truth.Fi is a natural expansion of the Truth Social movement,” Mr. Nunes said. “We began by creating a free-speech social media platform, added an ultra-fast TV streaming service, and now we’re moving into investment products and decentralized finance. Developing American First investment vehicles is another step toward our goal of creating a robust ecosystem through which American patriots can protect themselves from the ever-present threat of cancellation, censorship, debanking and privacy violations committed by Big Tech and woke corporations.”
Samantha Schwab, who is the granddaughter of Charles Schwab, was selected earlier this month as deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Treasury Department, and Mr. Musk holds an unofficial position with the U.S. government, heading up the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency.
For Mr. Musk, the venture will add to his ever-growing list of partnerships. The virtual wallet payment system is expected to be released later this year. Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, made the announcement on the X social media platform. “Another milestone for the Everything App: @Visa is our first partner for the @XMoney Account, which will debut later this year,” she stated. “Allows for secure and instant funding to your X Wallet via Visa Direct, connects to your debit card allowing P2P payments, option to instantly transfer funds to your bank account. First of many big announcements about X Money this year.”
The feature is expected to be linked to the X app. In 2022, Mr. Musk took over Twitter and transformed it into X; and during that time when he dramatically reshaped the company, firing many employees and revamping the mission and strategy, he said that the platform would become an “everything app.”
The X Money Account is widely being viewed as the first step towards that, and the ring of things to comes is not surprising for a man known for his grandiose vision.
“In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world,” Mr. Musk tweeted on July 24, 2023.
Visa posted a statement on X as well, “We’re excited to partner with @XMoney on the launch of X Money Account. Visa Direct will make it possible for US X Money Account users to fund and transfer money in real-time with their debit card.”
Approximately one in five Americans say they use X. According to a Pew Research Center survey of 10,287 adult internet users conducted March 18-24, 2024, 59% of respondents said they used X primarily to keep up with politics, while 45% said they used it primarily because its entertaining. Additionally, 24% of X users make between $70,000-$99,000 annually, and 27% make over $100,000.