Bitcoin mining company IREN has emerged as the most-searched cashtag on Elon Musk's social media platform X, surpassing perennial favorites Tesla and Bitcoin itself. According to data released by X product lead and Solana ecosystem advisor Nikita Bier, IREN led the platform's cashtag searches between December 1, 2025, and January 14, 2026.
The rankings revealed IREN in first place, followed by Tesla, AST SpaceMobile, and Bitcoin in fourth position. The rest of the top ten included tickers for Ondas Holdings, XRP, GameStop Corporation, Nebius Corporation, Opendoor Technologies Inc., and Ethereum. The data shows XRP, Bitcoin, and Ethereum were the only three cryptocurrencies to rank among the top-searched cashtags globally.
The surge in interest for IREN appears tied to the booming Bitcoin mining industry and the company's expanding technological footprint. This development comes just days after X introduced its new "Smart Cashtags" feature, spearheaded by Bier. The feature allows users to bind a ticker to a specific smart contract address or financial asset, eliminating ticker ambiguity and protecting retail investors from "copycat" tokens or scams.
"X is the best source for financial news — and hundreds of billions of dollars are deployed based on things people read here," Bier remarked. "We are building Smart Cashtags that allow you to specify the exact asset (or smart contract) when posting a ticker." Tapping a Smart Cashtag now brings up a floating panel with real-time price charts, market data, and aggregated social sentiment for that specific asset. Early concept screenshots have even teased integrated "Buy" and "Sell" buttons.
The announcement, however, landed amidst some community controversy. It came just one day after Crypto Twitter reacted angrily to a Bier post that appeared to hint at new restrictions on how much users could participate in threads. Pseudonymous analyst KALEO criticized the potential move, arguing limiting reply frequency would harm community-led conversations.
Nonetheless, the feature has sparked speculation about X's future as a financial hub. Analyst AB Kuai Dong suggested the viral post led many to believe X might become a center for stock and crypto trading via partnerships with platforms like Coinbase and Base, or that Elon Musk could choose to build a native exchange, noting that "X Money" has been under development for nearly a year.
Despite the social media excitement, market performance hasn't necessarily followed. CoinGecko data shows XRP was down more than 3% over the past week while Bitcoin surged roughly 5%, highlighting that heightened search interest does not automatically translate to price gains.
