X, owned by Elon Musk, has introduced a new feature called Cashtags that allows U.S. users to place stock trades directly from their timelines. This move capitalises on the years of stock discussions and the recent crypto craze on the platform. Initial partners include Interactive Brokers, Moomoo, Gemini, Kraken and Coinbase. Mridul Singhai, X Product Engineering lead, says, 'Cashtags close the gap between a ticker on the timeline and the market itself.'

Users can view an asset’s price chart and related posts on X, then tap ‘Trade’ to proceed to their chosen brokerage. Monique Pintarelli, SpaceXAI’s head of Global Advertising, says, 'Our Cashtag partners make it possible to move seamlessly from discovery and conversation to a brokerage, without breaking the moment.' However, the feature could also enable more market manipulation by AI-controlled bots and spammers. This is a move that blurs the line between social media and financial trading.