X to start selling off old twitter handles starting $50,000

X, previously known as Twitter, is now offering unused user accounts for sale with prices starting at $50,000 and going higher. Forbes has revealed that a team within the company, referred to as the @Handle Team, has initiated the development of a marketplace to sell account names that have been left dormant by their original registrants. Notably, this development follows Elon Musk's earlier announcement of such a program in the near future.

Forbes has reported that it uncovered emails that show the @Handle Team actively engaging in the sale of these unused user handles. The publication reported that X has already reached out to potential buyers, requesting a fixed fee of $50,000 to begin the account purchase process. These emails were sent by current X employees, who mentioned that the company had recently updated its @Handle guidelines, procedures, and associated fees.

It's worth mentioning that Elon Musk had previously hinted at his intention to sell these old usernames shortly after acquiring the micro-blogging platform, expressing concerns about a significant number of handles being held by bots and trolls. Reports in January of this year indicated that he planned to free up potentially 1.5 billion usernames. By May, X had already begun the process of removing inactive accounts from its platform.

As per Forbes' report, X's username registration policy still stated that inactive usernames could not be released at that time, while its "inactive account policy" advised users to log in every 30 days to avoid being classified as inactive. However, the company was not currently releasing inactive usernames.