Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and billionaire Elon Musk have a history of sparring, usually over taxes. But now they're clashing over something potentially bigger: the future of financial services. Warren is taking aim at Musk's plans to launch X Money, the financial arm of his social media company X (formerly Twitter), and she's not mincing words.
Since buying Twitter and rebranding it as X, Musk has been pretty clear about his ambition to build an "everything app" that includes financial services. That vision is now crystallizing as X Money, and Warren—the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee—is scrutinizing it closely. In a letter to Musk, she didn't hold back.
"If your track record operating X is any indication of how you'll operate X Money, consumers, our national security, and the stability of the financial system may be at risk," Warren wrote.
That's a strong statement. So what's behind it? Warren points to a few things. She alleges Musk may have increased consumer and national security concerns after previously working with Russ Vought to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—the very agency that would have been responsible for regulating X Money. She suggests Musk stood to gain from that move, calling it a step to benefit X and its financial launch.
Warren also questions X Money's potential partnership with Cross River Bank, a bank that faced FDIC enforcement actions in 2018 and 2023, which she calls a "repeat offender." And she ties Musk's past actions at X directly to financial risk: "Your failure to operate X in a safe and responsible manner does not breed confidence in your ability to safely expand into consumer finance."
Specifically, she cites sexual images generated by Grok on X and the platform allowing sanctioned individuals to boost their reach. "This track record raises serious questions about the privacy, scams and frauds, and illicit finance risks X Money may pose," Warren writes.
She also hints at potential favoritism, noting Musk may have worked with the Trump Administration on special rules for stablecoin issuance by private companies like X—rules that wouldn't apply equally to public companies.
