X will start selling inactive usernames to paid users

Your old Twitter handle might be worth something to someone, apparently.

X (formerly Twitter) announced over the weekend that it will start selling inactive handles on the Elon Musk-owned social network. The company will facilitate sales through a new Handles Marketplace, which will only be available to paid Premium and Premium Business users. Some usernames will be “complimentary” (AKA free), and X is calling those “Priority” handles. Others will be doled out on a paid or invite-only basis, and those are designated as “Rare” handles.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

It’s all bit strange, but our friends at PCMag have a clearer explanation of how this works. The free ones will be longer handles with full names or alphanumeric phrases, while the ones that cost money will be shorter and more recognizable handles, like the ones that brands use. Anyone who wants a free username will have to submit a request and wait for approval, while paid usernames will be given out via public drops or, in other cases, an invite-only program.

In case you were wondering, prices for these usernames apparently start at $2,500 and can go up to seven figures depending on “demand and uniqueness,” per a support page cited by PCMag. Ownership of sold usernames cannot be transferred, so theoretically, there won’t be a resale market for them.

This is certainly a unique solution to the age-old problem of wanting a username that’s claimed by someone who doesn’t use it anymore. There are definitely a couple of major potential issues with it, though. For starters, there’s no indication that the previous owner of a sold username will see any of that money. Beyond that, this could easily be used for nefarious means; it’s not hard to imagine someone buying @dril in a few years and using it to shill crypto scams, or whatever it is grifters do on X these days.

Given that X has already killed the original purpose of the blue checkmark as a verification tool and turned it into a paid status symbol, this at least feels like it could be an avenue for digital identity theft, the likes of which the site’s current ownership and moderation policies might not be equipped to handle at the moment.