X’s Nikita Bier says ahead of X Money launch

Nikita Bier may have just told crypto what X is about to ship.

“Crypto has had a rough year. Maybe we should launch something to fix it,” X’s product manager wrote Tuesday in a post that garnered more than 677,000 views in a matter of hours.

Elon Musk confirmed last month that

What lies beneath this pile remains an open question.

The public details describe a product based on fiat currency, with no confirmed crypto functionality. But

Three weeks ago, X hired Benji Taylor, former chief product officer of Aave and head of design at Base.

Bier said at the time of the hiring that he had followed Taylor’s work for years and insisted on hiring him, calling one of his past products one of the best designed he had ever seen.

But the question of whether this overlap turns into competition or integration remains unanswered.

X could keep its payments stack entirely fiat, rivaling crypto for users seeking yield and convenience. Or, it could potentially integrate crypto rails behind the scenes, using blockchain infrastructure without directly exposing users to it.

For now, Bier’s message resides in this ambiguity. Crypto may be waiting for its next catalyst, but it is no longer clear whether that catalyst will come from the industry or the platforms built around it.