Twitter has begun a move into finance, as Elon Musk cut a deal with investing platform eToro which will offer platform users real time prices on cryptocurrencies, stocks, and other investing instruments, as well as facilitate the trading of those assets.
In an announcement on Thursday, eToro said it will make trading data available through Twitter’s cashtags feature. Introduced in 2012, cashtags allows users to locate content focused on an asset by simply placing a dollar sign in front of the ticker.
In an interview with CNBC, a spokesman for eToro said that users of Twitter will be able to click a button which says, “view on eToro” if they want more information about an asset to decide whether to invest in it.
Yoni Assia, eToro’s Chief Executive, said in an interview with 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.”
He went on, “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.”
Analysts note this is another step toward “Chief Twit” Elon Musk’s professed intention to turn Twitter into an “everything app” which will offer such a wide range of services that many people will become dependent on it for everything from making payments, to banking, to communications with friends and family, to now, managing their investment portfolios. Many have observed Musk would appear to be modelling his intentions on the Chinese “everything app” WeChat.
Last month Musk was quoted as saying that he wanted Twitter to become “the biggest financial institution in the world.”
In another move observers felt was a sign of the app beginning to morph into something new, in court filings in an unrelated lawsuit, it was revealed Twitter’s Delaware corporate structure has ceased to exist, with the social media platform now belonging to the Nevada-based X Corp, with which it was merged.
