Elon Musk is Selling Old X Handles for a Minimum of $50,000

X (formerly Twitter) is going through a period of transformation. Recently, Elon Musk, the platform owner, revealed his plans to turn it into an "app for everything." The company is also releasing new features at a rapid pace. Some of these features are also exclusive to X Premium members, who pay a monthly subscription fee to enhance their income. Now, a new report has highlighted that X is also selling old user IDs to others for a whopping price of $50,000 or more. This revelation came after some words mentioned that X could start a marketplace where users can sell their handles to other users, with the platform taking a cut.

Forbes found emails from the company team that began working on a project to create a marketplace "for purchasing account names that were not used by the people who originally registered them." Furthermore, it has also been reported that X sent out emails to users they identified as potential buyers, asking them for a flat fee that starts at $50000 in exchange for popular handles.

Elon Musk is selling old X handles

The report also mentions that these emails "came from active X employees and noted that the company recently made updates to its @handle guidelines, process, and fees". However, to protect the identity of the recipients, Forbes has not revealed the content of the emails.

Musk has been trying to create a market for usernames for months. In November 2022, Musk banned many accounts that he considered bots or trolls. When a user asked if his ID was available, Musk said, "Some have simply been abandoned, but vast numbers of handles were consumed by bots/trolls. Aiming to start freeing those up next month".

A New York Times report suggested that starting in January 2023, Musk was already planning to sell old user IDs. Now, it's not clear when the market will be established, but if the report is to be believed, $50,000 is just the lower limit.