X to launch 'Smart Cashtags' for in-timeline crypto and stock trading within 'a couple weeks
x-to-launch-smart-cashtags-for-in-timeline-crypto-and-stock-trading-within-a-couple-weeks

X head of product Nikita Bier confirmed Saturday that the social media platform will roll out Smart Cashtags in the coming weeks, enabling users to trade stocks and cryptocurrencies directly from their timeline. The forthcoming update represents the most concrete step yet toward integrating financial services into the "super-app" platform's core experience.

Bier also promised new efforts to crack down on apps that create spam posts or encourage raiding and harassment, the latest in a series of proclamations that have sometimes drawn the ire of crypto traders on the platform.

"I genuinely want crypto to proliferate on X, but applications that create incentives to spam, raid, and harass random users are not the way," Bier wrote in a post on X. "And yes, we are launching a number of features in a couple weeks, including Smart Cashtags that will enable you to trade stocks and crypto directly from timeline."

"All automation & spam via scraping or API will be flagged and evaluated extensively," Christopher Park, director of X's developer platform, added in his own X post. "No more bots/programs that do or incentivize large scale platform manipulation, engagement farming, spam, & scraping."

Bier first teased the feature on Jan. 11, describing X as "the best source for financial news" and noting that "hundreds of billions of dollars are deployed based on things people read here." At the time, he said the team was collecting feedback ahead of a public release targeting February.

Smart Cashtags build on X's existing $TICKER system, where users prefix symbols with a dollar sign to create clickable links. Under the new system, users will be able to specify an exact asset or smart contract address when posting a ticker. Tapping the tag will display live price charts, related posts across the platform, and direct trading options. Early mockups showed integrated "Buy" and "Sell" buttons alongside price data.

Bier has said the API powering Smart Cashtags will work in near real-time for anything minted on-chain. That opens the door for smaller-cap tokens not listed on centralized exchanges to appear alongside equities like $NVDA.

Saturday's comments came in response to a thread about third-party crypto apps on X. Argentine tech entrepreneur Santiago Siri had argued that OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger was leaving substantial token fees on the table by resisting tokenization efforts. Bier called Siri's characterization of "claim your fees" mechanics "the most dishonest perspective" he had read and said X would update its API rules to block apps that create fee pools for non-consenting users.

Smart Cashtags fit into a broader financial services push at X. Then-CEO Linda Yaccarino announced a partnership with Visa in January 2025 to launch X Money, a digital wallet for peer-to-peer payments. By June, she told the Financial Times the platform would roll out in-app trading and investing under the X Money banner.

The company holds money transmitter licenses in more than 40 U.S. states, though it has yet to secure approval in New York after withdrawing its application there. Elon Musk said at an xAI presentation earlier this month that X Money has completed internal employee testing and will open to a limited external beta within one to two months. It's been about three years and three months since Musk acquired Twitter, now X, for about $44 billion.