X Snags DeFi Design Wizard to Polish Musk's Payment Rocket

Elon Musk's X has recruited crypto veteran Benji Taylor to become its new design czar, a role that now covers everything from the social media cesspool to xAI and SpaceX. Think of him as the aesthetic overlord for the entire Musk-verse.

Taylor is the founder of Los Feliz Engineering, the crew that built the self-custody wallet Family. That project was so slick it caught the eye of Aave Labs, which swallowed the company whole in 2023 and kept Taylor on as chief product officer until October 2025. He then took his talents to Coinbase's Base network, where he was the mastermind behind the look and feel of the Ethereum L2.

X product lead Nikita Bier admitted he'd been stalking Taylor's portfolio for years and lobbied aggressively to get him on the team. He called one of Taylor's past creations "among the best designed" he'd ever seen, which in the world of crypto UX is like finding a diamond in a landfill.

This hire comes at a critical moment as X quietly preps the launch of X Money, currently scheduled for an April debut. The service promises P2P payments, bank deposits, a debit card, and cashback rewards across more than 40 U.S. states, all while offering a tantalizing 6% yield on idle balances. Notably, Musk has yet to connect any of this to a blockchain, leaving crypto degens watching from the sidelines, wallets at the ready.

Taylor will now be the design captain for X's burgeoning financial empire, tasked with merging his deep wallet and DeFi knowledge with Musk's grand vision of turning the platform into the everything-app for your money. It's a big job, but someone's gotta make sending payments as smooth as posting a regrettable tweet.