• Elon Musk auctions off inactive X’s usernames for $50,000 each.
• A user suggested creating a Handle Marketplace to auction usernames.
• There are 1.3 billion Twitter accounts, but only 237.8 million are actively used.

Elon Musk‘s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has started selling inactive Twitter account usernames for a remarkable $50,000 each.

Although the company has officially claimed that inactive usernames cannot be released, an internal team called @HandleTeam is allegedly working on a marketplace for unused usernames, as reported by Forbes. Sales are being conducted through email outreach to potential buyers, who are asked to pay a fixed fee.

During a conversation in November of the previous year, while talking about the idea of granting amnesty to suspended accounts, Musk pointed out that a significant number of usernames had been taken by automated accounts and troublemakers. He expressed his plan to begin reclaiming them and making them accessible for use in the subsequent month.

In the same discussion, a user named Paris Vegas suggested that Elon Musk create a Handle Marketplace, where users could trade handles in an auction-style format, much like eBay. This idea emphasized the potential for such a marketplace to offer a practical solution for X to release inactive handles and generate extra revenue.

In December, Musk hinted at the company’s intentions to initiate the process of retrieving usernames from 1.5 billion accounts. Nevertheless, there has been no official public statement to confirm this action.

Twitter will soon start freeing the name space of 1.5 billion accounts

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022

As of 2023, it’s important to highlight that DemandSage’s data reveals there are 1.3 billion Twitter accounts in existence, but only 237.8 million of them are in active daily use.

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In January, The New York Times stated that X was exploring the option of selling usernames as a revenue-generation strategy. At that point, the company’s engineers were having discussions about the viability of this approach, but no definite plans had been established. It was additionally pointed out that only the usernames of well-known figures held significant value.