On July 23, Elon Musk's X began rolling out X Money to a subset of Premium+ users. The digital wallet enables peer-to-peer payments, a Visa debit card, and yield on cash balances. Its banking backbone is provided by Cross River Bank, an FDIC-insured institution that has partnered with Ripple since 2014 and previously utilized XRP Ledger for cross-border payments.
Cross River's Decade-Long Ripple Connection
Cross River's existing ties with Ripple have sparked speculation among XRP supporters that X Money could eventually integrate blockchain-based payment infrastructure—such as faster settlements, cross-border transfers, or stablecoin services. However, neither X nor Cross River has announced any plans to incorporate XRP or other cryptocurrencies into X Money at this stage. The service currently operates on conventional banking rails, with Cross River handling deposits, payment processing, card issuance, and the X Cash Sweep Program offering up to $10 million in FDIC insurance per eligible balance.
Musk has previously hinted at crypto features potentially joining X's financial services, but no timeline has been set.
XRP Price Holds Near $1.06, Futures Open Interest Drops
XRP traded between $1.01 and $1.08 in the past 24 hours, currently around $1.04. Analyst Ali Martinez highlighted UTXO Realized Price Distribution data showing over 830 million XRP changed hands near $1.06, making it a major volume cluster support. If broken, the next support levels are $0.80, $0.62, and $0.51.
Derivatives data from CoinGlass shows total XRP futures open interest declined 2% to ~$2.35 billion in the last four hours, indicating deleveraging amid broader crypto market volatility. The interplay between technical support and declining leverage keeps traders cautious.
Separately, X recently expanded its Smart Cashtags feature, allowing users to view larger real-time charts for cryptocurrencies and stocks including Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, HYPE, Dogecoin, Tesla, Strategy, and Coinbase directly within the platform. This move suggests a broader financial dashboard is in the works.
Ripple itself continues to push regulatory clarity in the US, recently deploying a mobile ad truck around the U.S. Capitol urging passage of the CLARITY Act to establish clearer digital asset rules. Whether X Money eventually bridges traditional banking and crypto remains an open question.