Design Jedi Benji Boards the X-Wing, Crypto Speculation Goes Lightspeed

Elon Musk took to his digital megaphone on X to announce that Benji Taylor, the former Chief Product Officer of Aave Labs and erstwhile design maestro for Coinbase's Base network, is now the platform's Design Lead. Taylor, who previously founded Los Feliz Engineering before it was acquired by Aave Labs in 2023, responded with the requisite honorable excitement, stating, “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.” One can only hope his first design task is a better "edit" button.

Not to be outdone, Musk chimed in with his own welcome: “Welcome to @xAI and 𝕏, Benji!” The dual welcome suggests Benji might be splitting his time between designing chatbots and figuring out what to actually call the platform formerly known as Twitter.

According to X's Head of Product, Nikita Bier, recruiting Taylor was a half-year saga of persuasion, presumably involving PowerPoints, promises, and perhaps a flamethrower or two. Bier declared the mission is to assemble “the greatest design team in the industry,” a bold claim in a space where "user-friendly" often means "you can find the buy button." He reminisced about meeting Benji six years ago as an investor in one of his apps, calling it “one of the most well‑designed products I’d encountered” and correctly predicting his ascent to design royalty.

The crypto corner of the internet, ever-ready to connect any dot to a bullish narrative, immediately began vibrating with speculation. On-chain analyst Willy Woo tweeted that Musk's hire is “a hint that X as it extends into a finance app will include crypto.” Because obviously, hiring a designer who worked at a DeFi giant and a major exchange couldn't be a coincidence—it's basically a signed contract, right?

Meanwhile, X Money—the platform's nascent financial wing currently in its "please don't break" phase—has been in a limited beta since early March. Its most famous tester, actor William Shatner, blessed the timeline with screenshots of the interface, boldly going where a few select users have gone before. Musk later confirmed that X Money will open for early public access in April, though whether digital-asset features will launch immediately or get the classic "soon™" treatment remains the million-satoshi question.