The X team is developing a feature called Smart Cashtags. This will link cryptocurrency and stock tickers in posts to real-time market data, according to product head Nikita Bier.

X is the best source for financial news — and hundreds of billions of dollars are deployed based on things people read here.

We are building Smart Cashtags that allow you to specify the exact asset (or smart contract) when posting a ticker. From Timeline, users will be able to… pic.twitter.com/nFtuA2ISqJ

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) January 11, 2026

“X is the best source for financial news: hundreds of billions of dollars are invested based on what people read here,” he wrote.

Clicking on a “smart cashtag” will open a page with quotes, a price chart, and a feed of posts mentioning the asset. In some cases, tokens will be identified by their smart contract address.

The feature is set to launch in February. Bier stated that the company is currently analyzing community feedback.

The executive also hinted at the potential introduction of trading. Users may be able to execute trades through connected non-custodial wallets or centralized exchange widgets.

👀

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) January 11, 2026

In June, former X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced the introduction of trading and investment tools in the app, but left the company a month later.

Elon Musk has also repeatedly expressed plans to transform the platform into a financial "super app," including the integration of cryptocurrencies.

At the end of 2023, the billionaire mentioned that the company expects to obtain licenses to launch a payment service by mid-2024, but as of this writing, the service has not yet launched.

Conflict

The announcement of Smart Cashtags comes amid disputes that erupted in the community. The trigger was a now-deleted post by Bier, in which he criticized the behavior of participants in the X crypto segment.

Nikita Bier deleted his tweet about how there's a 'reach meter'

Absolutely comical.@nikitabier, why delete it, if it exists we should know about it no?

Isn't this app entirely built around transparency, and THE TRUTH! pic.twitter.com/hTKDRS8sQ8

— Easy (@EasyEatsBodega) January 10, 2026

He stated that the crypto segment of the social network is "killing itself." The executive refuted the popular belief that a high volume of replies to posts helps boost account visibility. Bier called this theory a myth.

“Every post you make consumes part of your daily audience reach. […] As a result, [crypto-X] spends all its reach on replies like 'gm' hundreds of times, and when it finally posts something real, like a project announcement, only three people see it. [Crypto-X] is dying from suicide, not from the algorithm,” he stated.

Users found Bier's comments contradictory, as the X team had previously encouraged active engagement to increase reach.

Critics argue that the proposed concept of “attention economy” undermines the platform's foundations. They believe the main value of the social network lies in participant interaction.

So Nikita Bier deleted his post about replies taking away from your “reach XP” because it was the most nonsensical thing an X team member could post and CT rightly roasted him for it.

Both grok and X have been posting completely conflicting recommendations about how to get the… pic.twitter.com/WqH2Na3k03

— meta (@akidcalledmeta) January 10, 2026

“The very concept that active communication in comments can reduce the reach of your own posts, and that 'attention resources' need to be 'conserved,' directly contradicts the fundamental principle of the platform as a social network,” commented a user under the pseudonym meta.

Analyst KALEO expressed a similar view, asserting that limiting reply frequency contradicts the essence of X. The prospect of such limits has already raised concerns among users.

“Imagine if streamers were limited in how many times they could respond in their chat,” the expert analogized.

Amid the conflict, members of the crypto community created a new meme — “Nikita Boar,” which Bier himself shared.

Who made this? pic.twitter.com/M9qJ0wyQSn

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) January 11, 2026

Decentralized exchanges have already flooded the market with corresponding meme coins. At the time of writing, the market cap of the largest among them, trading under the ticker BOAR, exceeds $318 million.

Source: GeckoTerminal.

Recall that in November, X added a geolocation feature. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called it "risky."