X plans to let users trade stocks and cryptocurrency directly from their timeline within weeks, head of product Nikita Bier said Saturday.
The announcement came embedded in a broader warning: X is updating its API to block third-party apps that create fee pools for users without their consent.
Bier first teased Smart Cashtags in January. Saturday's post confirmed the feature remains on track for a February launch.
What Smart Cashtags Do
The feature upgrades X's existing $TICKER system. Users will be able to tag specific assets - including individual smart contract addresses - when posting. Tapping a Smart Cashtag will display real-time prices, charts, and related posts across the platform.
Early screenshots shared by Solana (SOL) Labs showed integrated buy and sell buttons. Bier, who advises Solana and is a venture partner at Lightspeed, said the API will work in near real-time for anything minted on-chain, meaning unlisted tokens could also appear.
X holds money transmitter licenses in more than 25 U.S. states. The platform tested cashtag price charts through TradingView and eToro in late 2022 before pulling the feature.
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The Spam Crackdown
Bier's post was a response to criticism that X had shut down crypto-related apps without offering pro-crypto alternatives.
In January, X revoked API access from so-called InfoFi apps - platforms like Kaito (KAITO) and Cookie (COOKIE) DAO that paid users in tokens for posting.
Bier called the spam a "tremendous amount of AI slop." The crackdown triggered double-digit token sell-offs, with the InfoFi sector losing roughly 11% of its market cap in hours.
On Saturday, Bier went further, targeting apps that assign fee pools to non-consenting users. He called one defense of that practice "the most dishonest perspective" he had read, adding that such mechanisms would haunt their creators because "every reply will be about making the price go up."
What Remains Unclear
X has not disclosed which broker or exchange will execute trades, how compliance will work across jurisdictions, or whether the feature will be available outside the U.S. Former CEO Linda Yaccarino announced similar in-app trading plans before resigning in mid-2025 - that version never shipped.
Whether Smart Cashtags actually launch this month will test whether X can deliver on a feature it has previewed, in various forms, for over three years.
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