Elon Musk brings on Benji Taylor, an experienced crypto professional, to lead design at X ahead of a wider launch of the platform’s X Money payments product next month.
Taylor shared the news on X on Wednesday, expressing that he felt “honoured” to join the company and is eager to collaborate closely with Elon Musk and X’s head of product, Nikita Bier. “I believe this is the most important platform in the world, and I can’t think of a more exciting place to help shape the future,” he added.
Taylor previously founded Los Feliz Engineering, the team behind the self-custody wallet Family, which Aave Labs, the development firm behind the $40 billion decentralized lender Aave, acquired in 2023. After the acquisition, he took on the role of chief product officer at Aave before moving to lead design for Coinbase’s Base, the Ethereum-based layer-2 network built by American crypto exchange Coinbase.
Bier, X’s head of products, shared that he had invested in Taylor’s app six years ago and expressed strong confidence in his abilities.
“It was one of the most well-designed products I’d encountered,” Bier wrote. “After six months of convincing, we’re finally teaming up and building the greatest design team in the industry.”
 
X Money Goes Live Soon
Hiring a design lead well-versed in crypto wallets, DeFi, and blockchain UX aligns with X’s expanding focus on financial services.
Since last year, X has been building its own payments platform, X Money. Currently in internal beta testing, the system is preparing for a limited external rollout, with centibillionaire Musk aiming for a public launch in April 2026.
Described as a one-stop financial hub, X Money will enable peer-to-peer payments, high-yield savings, and crypto access via “smart cashtags,” letting users trade stocks and crypto straight from the X timeline. However, Bier clarified at the time that the platform wouldn’t execute trades or act as a brokerage.
Despite widespread speculation that X Money could integrate Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin (DOGE), there has been no official confirmation of support for the OG memecoin—or any crypto features—at this stage.
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