Twitter Taps eToro to Let Users Trade Assets

Twitter has teamed with social investment platform eToro to let users trade financial assets.

“Very excited to be launching a new $Cashtags partnership with @Twitter which will enable Twitter users to see real-time prices for a much wider range of stocks, crypto & other assets as well as having the option to invest through eToro,” the company said on its Twitter feed  Thursday (April 13) morning.

The feature, which debuted Thursday on the Twitter app, lets users check on the markets and buy and sell stocks, cryptocurrencies and other assets, eToro told CNBC.

“As we’ve grown over the past three years immensely, we’ve seen more and more of our users interact on Twitter [and] educate themselves about the markets,” Yoni Assia, eToro’s chief executive, said in an interview with CNBC.

“There is very high quality content, real-time content on financial analysis of companies and what’s happening around the world. We believe this partnership will enable us to reach those new audiences [and] connect better the brands of Twitter and eToro.”

The partnership is happening at a time when Twitter CEO Elon Musk is apparently gearing up to transform the platform into an “everything app” that includes financial services capabilities.

The world’s second-richest person reportedly told staff recently that he could see Twitter’s value expanding to $250 billion — compared to the $20 billion Musk valued the company at weeks ago — in line with his plans to make the app a major part of users’ financial lives.

“I think it’s possible to become the biggest financial institution in the world,” Musk told attendees at a Morgan Stanley conference in March.

This vision for Twitter isn’t new. When Musk purchased the platform, he spoke of turning it into “X,” the “everything app.”

And on paper, that’s what Twitter is now called, according to recent court filings which say the company had merged with a shell corporation called “X.”

As noted here Wednesday (April 12) “X” was the name of the payments company and online bank Musk started in 1999 that eventually merged with PayPal, though he still owns the domain name “X.com.”

“I think we’re at the … stage now where people are ready to use the internet as their main financial repository,” Musk had said in a 1999 interview.

“An all-in-one ecosystem, such as that provided by a super app, offers a highly attractive, captive commerce environment,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this week.

“Tech leaders in the West have long admired the market dominance of platforms like WeChat and AliPay, popular across Asia, that enjoy expansive business models, connecting every facet of daily life from ride hailing and eCommerce to mobile payments, photo sharing, video chatting and even government service through in-platform mini apps.”