Elon Musk Recruits Former Base and Aave Designer for X

Elon Musk's X appoints Benji Taylor as chief designer.

Under the leadership of Elon Musk, social network X has appointed Benji Taylor as its chief designer. 

I’m honoured to be joining 𝕏 to lead design. I believe this is the most important platform in the world, and I can’t think of a more exciting place to help shape the future.

I’m looking forward to working closely with @elonmusk, @nikitabier, and the rest of the team. I’m… pic.twitter.com/FnVncYpsN5

— Benji Taylor (@benjitaylor) March 25, 2026

“It is an honour to lead the design department at X. I believe this is the most important platform in the world, and I cannot imagine a more exciting place to help shape the future,” wrote Taylor. 

Previously, he founded Los Feliz Engineering, the studio behind the non-custodial wallet Family. After the company was acquired by the Aave protocol in 2023, he became the CPO. Later, he moved to the L2 network Base by Coinbase as head of design.

Nikita Bier, head of product at X, revealed that he invested in Taylor’s app in 2020, describing it as “one of the most well-designed products.” 

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to welcome @benjitaylor to 𝕏, our new design lead.

I met Benji six years ago when I invested in his app: it was one of the most well-designed products I’d encountered. I knew right away he was on track to become one of the best designers in the… https://t.co/TFTZGCIm29

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) March 25, 2026

“After six months of persuasion, we are finally joining forces to build the best design team in the industry,” added Bier.

X Money 

Taylor’s appointment comes as the platform prepares to launch its payment system, X Money, scheduled for April. It is currently in internal beta testing. 

𝕏 Money early public access will launch next month

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2026

Developers position the product as a central hub for financial transactions. 

X Money’s features include:

• P2P fiat transfers;
• high-yield savings accounts;
• cryptocurrency integration via “smart cashtags” for trading assets directly from the feed.

In February, Bier noted that he “genuinely wants to see cryptocurrency” on the social network. However, he emphasized that the platform will not act as a broker or execute trades. Its goal is to create tools for financial data and links.

I genuinely want crypto to proliferate on X, but applications that create incentives to spam, raid, and harass random users is not the way.

It meaningfully degrades the experience for millions of people — only to enrich a few people.

And yes, we are launching a number of…

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) February 14, 2026

Back in June 2025, Musk announced the launch of the XChat messenger “with encryption, disappearing messages, and the ability to send any files.” Users criticized the new feature.