Musk’s X Money hasn’t launched yet—but it’s already making headlines! Mizuho says it will shake up the U.S. payments market and also downgrades PayPal’s rating

Elon Musk’s financial product X Money may not be officially live yet, but it has already caused waves in both the market and the regulatory front ahead of schedule. According to Mizuho Securities’ latest research report, the payments service, which is expected to launch in April, could not only upend the existing payments landscape in the U.S., but has already created tangible pressure on PayPal. Mizuho has downgraded PayPal’s stock rating to “Neutral” and specifically flagged that its Venmo will face the most direct impact.

Mizuho Securities is bullish on X Money, while also cutting PayPal’s rating

The report notes that X Money is not positioned as a single payment tool, but as a financial infrastructure layer that integrates messaging, payments, stored value, and yield features—aiming to replicate the WeChat and Alipay models in Asia, turning social traffic directly into a gateway for financial services. With X’s roughly 500 to 600 million monthly active users, along with analysts pointing to Musk’s experience in the past as a co-founder of PayPal, they believe it has the potential to reshape the U.S. payments market.

In the competitive landscape, Mizuho has downgraded PayPal’s stock rating to “Neutral” and specifically called out that its Venmo will face the most direct hit. The reason is that what X Money targets is precisely the core entry point of P2P payments and digital wallets—highly overlapping with existing platforms.

Regulation becomes X Money’s biggest variable

However, compared with market potential, the regulatory variable is becoming a more urgent key factor. The report specifically highlights the “CRYPTO Act” recently proposed in New York State. The bill would classify unlicensed virtual currency business activities as criminal offenses—meaning that if X Money introduces crypto-asset payments, it could directly cross legal red lines, significantly increasing operational risk.

Another potential pressure point comes from the “Clarity Act” at the federal level. The bill could limit the ability of non-bank institutions to offer yield-generating products. Reports say X Money plans to offer users cash account services with up to a 6% annual percentage yield (APY), which lands right at the heart of the regulatory controversy. Analysts note that with relevant regulations still unclear, the timing for launching such products is extremely sensitive.

At present, there is still major disagreement among U.S. regulators over whether platforms are allowed to offer yields tied to crypto assets—especially stablecoins—so X Money’s business model faces institutional uncertainty even before it can be rolled out.

This week, X launched the “Cashtags” feature, integrating real-time financial data directly into the social platform. U.S. and Canadian iPhone users can now search for or post stock tickers and crypto contract addresses on X, view price charts and related discussions in real time, and do so without leaving the app. When Canadian users view a cashtag, they’ll see a trading button that allows them to jump directly from X to place orders with Canada’s largest brokerage, Wealthsimple.

(X launches Cashtags: real-time stock and crypto price charts embedded in the social feed, with Canada first to pilot one-click trading)

This article “Musk’s X Money hasn’t launched yet—but it’s already making headlines! Mizuho says it will shake up the U.S. payments market and also downgrades PayPal’s rating” was first published on Chain News ABMedia.