I recently came across a very interesting analysis from Mizuho Bank about what’s happening with X Money, the payment platform Elon Musk recently launched on X. The bank’s analysts pointed out something that many probably didn’t see coming: this system has real potential to revolutionize how the payments ecosystem works in the United States.

What caught my attention is how they are framing it. Basically, X Money aims to integrate everything into a super app format, similar to what WeChat Pay or Alipay already do in Asia. Messaging, deposits, commercial transactions, all in one place. And considering that X has between 500 and 600 million monthly active users, the scale is enormous. Elon Musk also has experience in the payments sector, so he’s not exactly experimenting from scratch.

Now, not everything is rosy. Mizuho’s analysts identified two quite serious regulatory hurdles. First, the CRYPTO law proposed in New York, which essentially seeks to criminalize any digital asset operation without a license. That will complicate X Money’s plans to integrate cryptocurrencies. And second, the Clarity law could limit the ability of non-bank platforms to offer yields to users, which would directly block X Money’s plan to offer annual rates of 6% on cash balances.

This is where the news about Elon Musk gets interesting from a competitive standpoint. Mizuho downgraded PayPal’s rating to neutral, recognizing that both PayPal and its Venmo app face the most direct risk of substitution. It makes sense because X is targeting exactly the same services: peer-to-peer transfers and digital wallets.

Additionally, this week X launched Cashtags, a feature that allows users to view financial data of stocks and cryptocurrencies directly on the timeline. It’s another move that shows Elon Musk is building a comprehensive financial ecosystem. The interesting part is that all of this is happening in real time, and the payments market probably won’t be the same again.