X rolls out smart cashtags in US, Canada in step toward ‘everything app’

Social media platform X has launched its smart cashtag feature on iPhones in the US and Canada, letting users view stock and cryptocurrency data directly from the app as part of Elon Musk’s plan to shift X into a financial platform.

The new feature allows users to select a specific asset or smart contract address when posting a ticker. Tapping a tag displays live price charts and related posts. 

Canadian users will be able to trade stocks and crypto through a deal between X and Wealthsimple, an online brokerage. The trading feature has not yet rolled out in the United States. 

“Cashtags are just the first step in our commitment to be the best destination for the finance and crypto community,” said X's head of product Nikita Bier, in a post on Tuesday. 

The development is part of X’s “everything app” push, which Musk has previously said will include messaging, social networking, peer-to-peer payments and e-commerce.

It’s part of a wider trend among digital platforms to consolidate diverse services into a single cohesive experience. Crypto exchange Coinbase announced its intent to build a “super app” last July.

The announcement comes less than a day after Bier hinted on Tuesday that the platform could launch a crypto-related product, prompting speculation about what it could be. 

Musk previously said that X Money, a peer-to-peer payments feature with yield-bearing accounts and a cashback debit card, would launch in April.

Canadians trading on X sets stage for rollout

The integration with Wealthsimple to allow direct trading on the app sheds some insight into how it could work in other regions. 

“Users in Canada will see a button on cashtags so they can trade seamlessly from X. This is just a small preview of what's to come,” said Bier.

Bier also indicated that a rollout for web and Android devices, along with a global release of these features, is planned for the near future. 

Related: X mulls new rules for first-time crypto posts amid tortoise scam

Bringing the WeChat Pay model to Web3

Tat Thang, a partner at prediction platform Polymarket, suggested X is trying to build a Web3 equivalent of WeChat Pay, which is embedded within the Chinese app WeChat and allows users to make mobile payments and transfer money between contacts.

Thang argued that crypto transaction fees could be the key revenue driver for Musk’s ambitions for his “everything app”, since revenue and subscription fees can fluctuate, and person-to-person fiat transfers carry zero margin.

He also cited X’s hiring of Bier, a Solana advisor and Benji Taylor, former head of design at Base, along with a recent purge of crypto bots as indicators of X ramping up its financial ambitions because you can’t “drop a native wallet or trading terminal onto a timeline filled with drainer links.”

“It was a mandatory compliance sweep. You have to scrub the platform clean before you deploy consumer financial products,” Thang added.

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