The dream of social payments has been pursued by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for over 20 years. Now, this dream has suddenly accelerated—X Pay has been live for only 72 hours, and users have already surpassed one million.

This is not just a simple feature iteration. What do traditional payment platforms rely on to survive? Fees. PayPal charges 2.9%, Venmo takes 1.9%, while X has announced zero-fee transfers. Creators can tip, users can transfer money directly, with no middlemen taking a cut—the money goes straight into accounts. From chat windows to payment confirmation, everything is done in one seamless line.

Why is there a surge now? It’s rooted in history. 25 years ago, X.com became PayPal, which was later sold by its founders. After acquiring Twitter and rebranding it as X, the founders have reopened this cycle—combining social platforms with payment tools, similar to the ecosystem built by WeChat in China, but more aggressive and with fuzzier boundaries.

There are also many challenges. The EU recently issued a $120 million fine, New York’s payment license is still under review, and Apple and Google’s app stores could block at any time. Regulatory hurdles may entangle the platform for a while.

But there is a hidden signal—X has already established a channel from fiat currency to Visa, and cryptocurrency integration is in planning. Once connected, hundreds of millions of social users could seamlessly access Bitcoin, USDC, and more. Payment public chains (like Solana, Lightning Network) are likely to see massive real transaction volumes.

Who will be most impacted? Traditional payment platforms will be forced to lower prices, young people’s deposits in banks might migrate to X Wallet, and revenue models for content creators will be completely rewritten—tips and paid content will be instant, with no middlemen involved.

The true goal of this move isn’t just payments. It’s to directly convert social traffic into financial infrastructure. The fortress of the old order may indeed be shaken this time.