X is selling handles unlocked from inaccessible accounts, formalizing a brand new currency on the platform and a brand new front in identity. Access arrives via the Handle Marketplace, a feature that is making its way out to paying customers broadly now. To join, you must have a Premium+ or Premium Business account and subscribe monthly long before you even bid on a name.
How the Handle Marketplace Works on X for Buyers
X splits inventory between two buckets: Priority and Rare. Priority handles encompass multi-word terms, full names, and alphanumeric mixtures (such as @GabrielJones, @PizzaEater, or @ParadoxAI). Rare handles are the trophy class — short, generic, or culturally significant names like @Pizza, @Tom, and @One. By X’s own advice, Rare handles may range from $2,500 to seven figures, if there is demand and uniqueness.
Rare handles aren’t something everyone can buy whenever they feel like it. X says the selection criteria include a mix of former contributions to the platform, the intended use case for the handle, and engagement and reach of the account. Access comes through an invitation, or periodic “public drops,” in which multiple users apply and X assigns the name. Should you change to a new one, you lose your old handle. You can downgrade to the handle you had prior after securing a Priority handle (X notes that “after about 30 days your old one comes back”).
What It Costs and Who Can Buy Handles on X
Access will be limited to its best-paid tiers, Premium+ or Premium Business. And those fees are in addition to whatever you pay for the handle itself. Pricing looks to be at a market-determined equilibrium — dictated by perceived scarcity and competition — similar to off-platform gray markets where short, single-word usernames have long changed hands for bottles-of-water-in-the-desert money. X’s move is an official statement, making that demand inside the product, much like when Telegram brought officially sanctioned auctions for unique usernames.
The economics are simple: ultra-short handles are easier to remember, cleaner in marketing assets, and less likely to be mistyped or miscopied.
That convenience commands a premium. Trademark-holding brand owners can still seek to enforce rights under platforms’ policies, so there’s no way of knowing who might get treated with kid gloves, making how they’ll use the handle — or application pitch — strategic.
Why X Is Doing This Now and What It Hopes to Gain
After all, monetizing identity is a logical (if controversial) next step from paid verification. The marketplace provides X with an avenue to unlock sleepy inventory while siphoning dollars away from third-party brokers and back toward the company. It also further clears out dormant squats that exasperate brands and creators who are looking for consistency on platforms.
But the model carries reputational risk. An earlier overhaul of X’s verification system led to a series of high-profile hoaxes, including one fake post from a “verified” account claiming to be a big pharmaceutical company that rocked investors. Regulators have since turned their attention to the rules governing account authenticity and transparency in the E.U.’s Digital Services Act. A marketplace that promotes engagement and reach could draw criticism that larger accounts have an upper hand in acquiring names with cultural cachet.
Brand and Creator Playbook for Buying X Handles
If you’re hoping to buy a handle, get ready the way you would for a domain acquisition. Document the intended use immediately, begin assembling evidence of brand ownership if applicable, and benchmark the worth of the name against alternatives. There’s total cost of ownership to think about: both the subscription and the handle price, as well as the operational lift you’ll endure to update packaging, ads, business cards, email signatures, and cross-platform bios.
Brevity can mean dividends in recall and campaign performance. Marketing analytics companies frequently comment that fewer characters make users less abrasive in ads and voice mentions. For creators as well as for startups, a short handle can help solidify an identity early — especially if you’re consolidating naming across X, Instagram, YouTube, and your domain. The trade-off is capital: you might be able to get the same boost of recognition from a looped two-word handle at a fraction of the cost.
Open Questions and Market Dynamics Around Handle Sales
Key unknowns remain. How clear are allocations when it comes to the public drops? How can applicants contest token awards to bigger accounts with more engagement? How strictly will X define “inactive,” and will this definition change over time as supply becomes more constrained?
And then, too, there is the question of aftermarket behavior. Even if the marketplace does help to restrict black-market flipping, there will always be demand for highly liquid, single-word handles that speculators are eager to pounce on. Similarweb and mobile intelligence companies have seen volatility in X’s traffic and app installs during recent cycles; if usage metrics shift, so might valuations for headline-grabbing handles.
The Bottom Line on X’s New Handle Marketplace
X’s Handle Marketplace transmutes long-frozen usernames into formal assets, now trading like premium digital real estate. For businesses and creators with budget and direction, a Rare or judicious Priority handle might be a smart upgrade. For everyone else, the best move might be to watch the early auctions, see how allocation shakes out, and decide if the brand lift is worth the continuing expense of both subscription and acquisition.
