Emails: X has begun work on an account handle marketplace for purchasing handles left unused, requesting a flat fee of $50K from potential buyers in some cases
Rumored to be in the works for the past year, the initiative appears to have begun rolling out recently, with email solicitations being sent to potential buyers.
ForbesAlex Konrad
Context & Ripple Effects
The reported outreach moves X from considering username auctions toward testing whether dormant account names can be sold as a direct revenue product.
It also comes after X stopped offering follower-acquisition ads, making the handle initiative part of a broader search for monetization formats beyond that discontinued ad product.
First-order effects
Potential buyers of unused handles face a quoted $50,000 entry price in some cases, turning access to certain account names into a negotiated purchase rather than an organic registration process.
X gains a potential direct-revenue channel from inactive usernames and an immediate way to measure demand for scarce or recognizable handles.
Second-order effects
A high flat-fee benchmark could push companies and public-facing users to weigh brand-protection value against the cost of acquiring a preferred identity on X.
Demand from solicited buyers would help X decide whether a broader marketplace is viable and which handle categories warrant differentiated pricing or access rules.
Third-order effects
If extended beyond bespoke outreach, the move would shift usernames from a free platform utility toward a managed inventory of monetizable digital identity assets.
That model could make platform identity more explicitly price-tiered, with rules around inactivity, eligibility, and reclaiming names becoming more consequential for users and businesses.
The trend: Social platforms are testing more direct ways to monetize scarce identity and access assets as they diversify beyond conventional advertising products.
I know people just really want to shit on X/Elon but this is clearly a good idea. Domains are valuable. Handles are valuable. Twitter should have done this a long time ago.
I figured this day would come, but as someone who was swatted over their handle it sucks to see the platform itself validating a gray market that has literally gotten people killed.
Reactivated my X account to protect my handle (joanwestenberg) from being coopted by a bigot or impersonator / being sold off wholesale by Musk. — If your handle is your real / doxxed name, I recommend doing the same. — Still not going back to the bad place. 🖕 — https://ww…
Scoop: Elon Musk's X has begun selling defunct usernames for as much as $50,000, per emails obtained by @Forbes. A dedicated “@ handle” team is overseeing the new marketplace, which was rumored to be in the works for months. https://www.forbes.com/...
Why don't I leave Twitter? Mostly because I don't want my name sold to some halfwit troll. So I'll just park the car and come back from time to time from Threads to check in: https://www.forbes.com/...