Elon Musk’s social media platform X is expected to soon allow users to trade stocks and cryptocurrencies directly from their timeline, as the company deepens its financial services.
Upcoming features, described by the company’s product manager Nikita Bier, will include “Smart Cashtags.” These will allow users to interact with stock symbols in posts and execute trades from within the app.
The announcement comes as the company prepares to launch an external beta of X Money, its internal payments system. Musk said the tool was already undergoing internal testing and would be available to a limited group of users within one to two months.
The idea is to make X a single platform where users can message, post, send money and invest, a version of Musk’s “everything app” vision.
He compared rolling out financial tools like X Money to adding in-app banking, saying users could eventually manage most of their daily digital activities without leaving the platform.
Elon Musk’s companies have been involved in the crypto space in the past. Its electric car maker Tesla has 11,509 bitcoins on its balance sheet, compared to an initial investment of 42,300 made in early 2021. SpaceX currently controls around 8,285 BTC.
Over the years, Musk has also shown support for dogecoin, a meme-inspired cryptocurrency. In 2022, he said SpaceX would accept DOGE for certain products, echoing an earlier decision by Tesla. Earlier this month, Musk said he could put DOGE “on the moon.”
