[ad_1]
Dive Brief:
- X, formerly known as Twitter, received a currency transmitter license from Rhode Island on Aug. 28 and a money transmitter license from Mississippi on Sept. 5, advancing its aim to start offering a payments feature to its app users.
- The two licenses, which are listed on the National Multistate Licensing System, were granted to X subsidiary Twitter Payments, bringing the company’s total number of state licenses to eight.
- The Rhode Island license would give X the ability to process cryptocurrency payments, according to a report this month from CoinDesk. Nonetheless, there is no indication that the company currently plans to do so.
Dive Insight:
The San Francisco-based social media platform filed paperwork late last year to receive money transmitter licenses in all fifty U.S. states and territories.
Elon Musk, owner and CFO of X, said on Monday that the company’s U.S. ad revenue dropped 60%, according to Reuters. With ad revenue in decline, the company may look to payments as a business that could boost its revenue. Musk previously pitched investors on X using payments features to bring in over $1.3 billion over six years, according to a report from The New York Times.
X’s payment app ambitions
-
October 2022
Musk acquires X, concluding a months-long courtship.
-
November 2022
The Financial Times reports that X has filed paperwork with the U.S. Treasury Department to become a payments processor.
-
June 2023
New Hampshire becomes the first state to grant a money transmitter license to X.
-
July 2023
Michigan, Missouri and Arizona grant money transmitter licenses to X.
-
August 2023
Georgia, Maryland and Rhode Island grant X licenses, bringing the total number to seven.
-
September 2023
Mississippi grants X its eighth license.
X did not respond to a request for comment on being granted licenses in Rhode Island and Mississippi.
[ad_2]
