Former Base and Aave Designer Benji Taylor Joins X as Design Lead

Benji Taylor Appointed as X's New Design Lead

Elon Musk's social media platform X has brought on Benji Taylor as its new head of design. Taylor, a seasoned product designer with deep roots in the crypto industry, previously held leadership roles at both the Aave protocol and Coinbase's L2 network Base.

«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.» — Benji Taylor (@benjitaylor), original post

Taylor described X as «the most important platform in the world» and expressed enthusiasm about collaborating with Musk and Nikita Bier, the platform's head of product.

From Crypto Native to Social Media Giant

Taylor's career trajectory in the crypto space is notable:

• He founded Los Feliz Engineering, the studio behind the non-custodial wallet Family.
• After Aave acquired the company in 2023, Taylor became CPO of the DeFi protocol.
• He later joined Coinbase's L2 network Base as head of design.

X's head of product Nikita Bier revealed that he first invested in Taylor's app back in 2020, calling it «one of the most well-designed products» he had encountered.

«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.» — Nikita Bier (@nikitabier), original post

According to Bier, it took six months of convincing to bring Taylor on board. Their shared goal is to build «the best design team in the industry.»

Why This Matters: X Money on the Horizon

The timing of Taylor's appointment is significant. X is gearing up to launch X Money, its in-house payments system, with early public access scheduled for April 2026. The product is currently undergoing internal beta testing.

«𝕏 Money early public access will launch next month» — Elon Musk (@elonmusk), original post (March 10, 2026)

X Money is being positioned as a central hub for financial transactions. Its planned feature set includes:

• Peer-to-peer fiat transfers;
• High-yield savings accounts;
• Crypto integration via «smart cashtags» enabling asset trading directly from the feed.

Crypto on X: Tools, Not Brokerage

In February, Nikita Bier outlined X's approach to cryptocurrency. While expressing genuine interest in seeing crypto flourish on the platform, he made clear that X would not function as a broker or execute trades. Instead, the platform aims to build tools for financial data and referral 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.» — Nikita Bier (@nikitabier), original post (February 14, 2026)

Taylor's extensive experience designing crypto-native products — from a non-custodial wallet to interfaces for one of the largest DeFi protocols — positions him well to execute on X's fintech ambitions. The platform has been steadily expanding beyond social networking: in June 2025, Musk announced the XChat messenger with encryption and disappearing messages, though users were largely critical of that launch.

With a crypto-savvy design lead now at the helm, X appears to be doubling down on its transformation into a financial super-app.