Elon Musk's social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is preparing to roll out a feature called "Smart Cashtags" within the coming weeks, enabling users to trade stocks and cryptocurrencies directly from their timeline. This marks a significant step toward Musk's vision of transforming X into an "everything app" integrating social media with financial services.
X's Head of Product, Nikita Bier, clarified the operational details, stating that X will not act as a brokerage or handle trade execution. Instead, the platform will build financial data tools and links, redirecting users to partner exchanges to complete their trades. This approach mirrors how other platforms, like MetaMask, have integrated tokenized stock trading through external providers.
The feature is designed to allow users to click on ticker symbols within posts to view detailed financial data, charts, and related content, and then execute trades. Bier emphasized that the rollout will include strict anti-spam measures and updated API policies to ban applications that generate non-consensual fee pools, addressing recent token-based harassment issues.
While specific supported crypto assets remain unconfirmed, speculation is high regarding the potential integration of Dogecoin (DOGE), given Musk's longstanding public support for the meme coin. The company has laid regulatory groundwork for this move, with its subsidiary X Payments having secured money transmitter licenses in more than 40 U.S. states.
This trading integration arrives as X prepares to launch an external beta for its in-house payment system, "X Money," which is currently in internal testing. Musk has described the payments service as intended to be "the central source of all monetary transactions" and a "game changer." By embedding trading into a platform used by hundreds of millions daily, X could significantly lower the barrier to entry for retail investors, intensifying competition for standalone crypto exchanges.
