Musk’s XChat Promises ‘Bitcoin-Style’ Encryption, Experts Say It Doesn’t Even Exist

Elon Musk has announced a new feature coming soon to X, a secure messaging platform dubbed XChat. Promising end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages, and multimedia sharing, the rollout is part of Musk’s larger push to turn X into an all-in-one digital platform.

But the announcement raised more questions than answers.

In a post on Sunday, the X CEO claimed that XChat is "built in Rust with Bitcoin-style encryption," calling it a “whole new architecture.” The phrase immediately sparked debate among developers and cryptographers, many of whom were quick to challenge Musk's technical characterization.

“Bitcoin doesn’t even use encryption,” noted Luke Dashjr, Bitcoin Core contributor and CTO at OCEAN, responding directly to Musk’s claim.

Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3 and Pixelmatic, echoed that sentiment, adding that while Bitcoin does rely on cryptographic techniques like hashing and elliptic curve cryptography, it does not use encryption in the traditional sense, especially not for securing messages.

Even the use of Rust raised eyebrows. While Rust is gaining popularity among blockchain developers, Bitcoin’s original codebase is written in C++. As Shaw Walters, founder of Eliza Labs, pointed out, “Rust clients came later.”

As of now, X has not published technical documentation to clarify how its new encryption works or how closely it aligns—if at all—with Bitcoin’s architecture. Multiple requests for comment from the company have gone unanswered.

The announcement comes on the heels of a busy week for Musk. Just days ago, he officially stepped down from his temporary advisory role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a Trump-era initiative aimed at cutting federal waste. Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to dominate headlines, most recently due to another rocket failure followed by Musk’s renewed vision for colonizing Mars within two decades.

And while Musk denied any formal partnership with Telegram last week, contrary to claims by CEO Pavel Durov that a $300 million xAI deal had been signed, his tech empire shows no sign of slowing down.

X has also quietly soft-launched X Money, a digital wallet that adds financial services to the platform’s growing ecosystem.

With XChat, Musk appears to be entering yet another highly competitive space: secure messaging. But until more technical details emerge, skepticism remains high, especially from those who know how Bitcoin actually works.