X now lets users trade stocks and cryptocurrencies
What's the story
X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, has launched a new feature called Cashtag. The feature allows US-based users to trade stocks directly from their timelines. The move is part of X's expansion into the financial space with X Money. Initially, the feature will work with Interactive Brokers, Moomoo, Gemini, Kraken, and Coinbase.
Feature functionality
Cashtags now allow trading
Cashtags, a concept from financial platform Stocktwits in 2008, adds a dollar sign ($) before stock ticker symbols to make market conversations easier.
However, unlike its predecessor on Twitter that only tracked stock-related discussions, the new Cashtags on X take it a step further by allowing users to trade stocks.
The feature turns ticker symbols for stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrencies into interactive destinations where users can trade directly.
User guide
How to use the new feature
To use the Cashtag feature, users need to tap on a supported Cashtag. This will take them to the asset's price chart and related posts on X.
From there, they can tap "Trade" to proceed at a participating brokerage where they can log in and complete their trade.
They can also directly access their brokerage partner's mobile app or website from X for logging into an existing account or creating a new one.
Strategic goal
Potential for misuse in market manipulation
Monique Pintarelli, head of Global Advertising at SpaceXAI, emphasized the strategic goal behind Cashtags.
She said, "With our Cashtag partners, we're connecting the financial conversation to action."
This means that users can now go from discussing market trends on X to a participating brokerage to trade stocks without breaking the moment.
However, there are concerns that this feature could be misused by AI-controlled bots or spammers for market manipulation.