X launches the wallet: money, a card and 6% interest inside the social network

For years Musk has repeated the same thing - X will become the 'everything app,' on the model of China's WeChat. Until now it was just words and the odd pilot attempt. As of this week, real money is entering X in the US.

The trick is in the comparison they hand you themselves: 6% interest against an average 0.38% for a US savings account. Nobody pays fifteen times the market rate out of generosity. This is an acquisition cost - to get your money into X and keep it there until the habit sets in. Promotional interest rates have a history: they start generous and melt away right when the habit is already in place.

The interest is the promotion. The habit is the product.

Outside the US the service isn't there yet, and by their own account expansion is still ahead. In Europe, licenses and regulations stand between X Money and us - exactly the brakes we end up grateful for. We're watching something rare from a distance: a social network turning into financial infrastructure in real time. The convenience is real. So is the concentration - identity, public speech and money in one app means the app's problems become your problems too. If you go in, go in with your eyes open for the fine print.

The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.