Ruisui Bank: Musk's X Money may disrupt the U.S. payment market and impact PayPal

According to a report by The Block, Mizuho Bank research analysts released a report on Thursday stating that the financial feature X Money launched by Elon Musk's X platform has the potential to disrupt the U.S. payment industry, but the cryptocurrency integration plan may face regulatory obstacles.

Mizuho analysts Dan Dolev and Andrew Jenkins wrote in a client report that X Money is positioned as the financial infrastructure layer of the X platform, aiming to integrate instant messaging, bank deposits, and commercial transaction functions, similar to the "super app" model of WeChat Pay or Alipay. With 500 to 600 million monthly active users on the X platform and Musk's background as a co-founder of PayPal in the payment industry, X Money has the potential to disrupt the U.S. payment industry.

On the regulatory front, the analysts pointed out two major potential obstacles: first, the recent "CRYPTO Act" proposed in New York aims to criminalize unlicensed virtual currency operations in the state, which will raise the compliance threshold for X's future cryptocurrency integration plans; second, the "Clarity Act" may restrict non-bank financial platforms from offering yields to users, potentially hindering X Money's plan to provide users with an annualized yield of 6% on cash balances, with analysts stating that the timing for the launch of this yield product is "particularly sensitive."

Mizuho also downgraded PayPal (PYPL) stock rating to "neutral," noting that PayPal and its Venmo app face the most direct substitution risk, as X is targeting the same peer-to-peer transfer and digital wallet entry points.

This week, the X platform also launched a new feature called "Cashtags," allowing users to view financial data for stocks and cryptocurrencies directly in their timeline.