Unused X handles on sale, prices start from $50,000: Report

Forbes has reported that a team formed by the company, referred to as the @Handle Team, has initiated a marketplace to sell account names that have been left dormant by their original registrants.

This development follows Musk's earlier announcement of his intention to implement such a program in the near future.

Forbes has recently uncovered emails that indicate the @Handle Team is actively engaged in selling these unused user handles.

The publication noted that X has already reached out to potential buyers, requesting a fixed fee of $50,000 to initiate the account purchase.

These emails were sent by current employees of X, who mentioned that the company had recently updated its @Handle guidelines, procedures, and fees.

It's worth noting that after acquiring the micro-blogging site, Musk had hinted at his plans to sell the old usernames.

He mentioned that a "vast number" of handles had been taken by "bots and trolls" in a tweet shortly after the acquisition of Twitter.

In January of this year, there were reports suggesting that the billionaire was considering freeing up as many as 1.5 billion usernames.

By May, X had already started the process of removing inactive accounts from its platform.

Forbes reported that on Friday evening, X's username registration policy still stated that "unfortunately, we cannot release inactive usernames at this time".

Its "inactive account policy," on the other hand, warned users to log in every 30 days to avoid being considered inactive. But it also said X was not currently releasing inactive usernames.