Cryptocurrency industry veteran becomes X’s new design head

X, a social media platform led by Elon Musk, has hired Benji Taylor, who has extensive experience in cryptocurrency product development, as head of design. Taylor announced in a post on Wednesday that he will be in charge of design at X and will be in charge of linking work with xAI and SpaceX.

Taylor is the founder of Los Feliz Engineering, which developed the self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet ‘Family’. After the company was acquired in 2023 by Aave Labs, which operates the $42 billion decentralized lending protocol Aave, Taylor served as chief product officer until October 2025. Most recently, he was in charge of design at Base, an Ethereum-based blockchain network built by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

X's product lead Nikita Bier said she has been tracking Taylor's work for years and has been actively trying to recruit him. Beer described one of Taylor's past products as the best design he had ever seen.

X Money launch and financial service expansion strategy

This recruitment is attracting attention as it comes at a time when X is in full swing with plans to expand its payment and financial service functions. Earlier this month, Musk announced that 'X Money' is scheduled to be released in April. X Money plans to provide peer-to-peer (P2P) remittance, bank deposit, debit card, and cashback reward functions in more than 40 U.S. states, and it has also been proposed to pay a 6% annual rate of return on the balance.

However, there was no specific mention of blockchain or cryptocurrency elements in the announcement at the time. However, with the addition of a designer with extensive practical experience in the cryptocurrency field, there is speculation about the possibility of X introducing blockchain-based functions in the future.

X’s actions amid competition between big techs to enter financial services

The integration of financial services into social media platforms has become a major trend in the global tech industry. China's WeChat Pay and Alipay are considered success stories of the 'super app' model, and Western platforms are also continuing similar attempts. Since the acquisition of Musk,