X Brings On Former Aave Executive Benji Taylor as Head of Design
The social platform X has appointed Benji Taylor, previously chief product officer at Aave and design leader for Base, to serve as its head of design as X Money payments product launch approaches.
The social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk, has brought on board Benji Taylor, a product designer with deep roots in cryptocurrency, to take on the role of head of design. This strategic hire comes in advance of the broader deployment of X Money, the platform's integrated payments solution, scheduled for next month.
On Wednesday, Taylor took to X to share news of his appointment, expressing that he felt "honoured" to become part of the organization and was eager to collaborate closely with both Musk and Nikita Bier, X's head of product. What makes Taylor's background particularly noteworthy is his extensive experience in the crypto space, including his role as founder of Los Feliz Engineering, a consumer software studio that decentralized lending protocol Aave Labs acquired back in 2023.
According to Bier, he had been tracking Taylor's professional journey for many years and recognized early on that Taylor was "on track to become one of the best designers in the world." Bier added that X was now "finally teaming up and building the greatest design team in the industry."
This key hiring decision arrives at a pivotal moment as X gears up to broaden the reach of X Money, a comprehensive payments and financial services infrastructure that will roll out peer-to-peer payment functionality, digital wallet capabilities and a debit card directly connected to user accounts.
Aave and Base roles
Following the acquisition of his company by Aave in 2023, Taylor stepped into the position of chief product officer, a role he maintained until October 2025, his LinkedIn profile indicates. In this capacity, he directed the organization's product strategy and development initiatives for its decentralized lending protocol along with its associated applications.
Prior to accepting his position at X, Taylor headed up the design function for Base, Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network. In that capacity, he bore responsibility for the network's product and interface design spanning both its user-facing and developer-facing experiences. His earlier professional experience included serving as senior vice president of product and design at Avara, which is the rebranded entity of the Aave Companies group.
X Money rollout
The significance of the timing cannot be overlooked. During the first week of March, Musk revealed that X Money would commence public access in the following month, functioning as a fully integrated payments and financial services infrastructure for the social media platform.
At present, the product remains in limited external beta testing and provides users with a 6% annual percentage yield on cash balances maintained within an X Money wallet, a customized metal Visa debit card that features the user's X handle engraved on it, and peer-to-peer payment capabilities that connect directly to the X application.
According to Musk's vision, X Money represents a crucial component of his broader strategy to transform the platform into an "everything app" that seamlessly integrates social networking, messaging and financial services under one digital roof.