Invest1 publisher2 min readPublished
Webull becomes the sixth US trading partner behind X's cashtags
Webull joined X's Cashtag program on Oct. 2 as a sixth US partner, linking stock and crypto posts to its quotes and order ticket. Trades still execute at the broker, so its quickest converts are X users who already have a Webull login.
The Investor · Invest desk
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What happened
- The program's first five US partners were Interactive Brokers, Moomoo, Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken, a mix of crypto exchanges and traditional brokerages.
- X does not execute trades itself; Nikita Bier, then X's head of product, clarified that the partner firms handle transactions externally.
- The Webull agreement also opens possible uses of X data, including sentiment, discussion trends, market narratives and Cashtag activity.
- Trading links on X began with an April 14 iPhone rollout in the US and Canada, with Wealthsimple as the Canadian trading integration.
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Why it matters
- cost Webull shareholders have to take the deal's value on trust until the company reports what X referrals cost it and how many accounts they bring in.
- decision US brokers outside the six now have to choose between joining a roster that grew within weeks of its September launch and leaving cashtag referrals to the firms already on it.
- capability If the data uses become products, Webull gets something from X that does not depend on a user clicking through to trade.
X says the program exists to shorten the path between discovering an investment and reaching a service that handles orders [13]. Bitcoin.com News describes that path for one partner, Kraken. A user goes from a post and its price chart to Kraken's app or website, then logs in or registers before the trade completes [9]. So the order ticket is close to the conversation, with a login in between (or, for anyone without an account, a full registration). Twitter introduced cashtags in July 2012 to organize stock discussions, and the brokerage connections came years later [6].
The X executive quoted on the program runs advertising. Monique Pintarelli, X's head of global advertising, said: "Our Cashtag partners make it possible to move seamlessly from discovery and conversation to a brokerage, without breaking the moment." [10] Anthony Denier, Webull's group president and US chief executive, said: "The next generation of investing will be defined by how seamlessly technology connects information, intelligence, and action." [11]
I can see three ways this goes. In the first, cashtags become a referral market priced like advertising, with X charging each new firm that joins a growing roster. Kraken announced on Sept. 16 and Webull on Oct. 2, 16 days apart [4][1][2], in a program that launched in September [5]. In the second, Webull gets more out of the data clause than out of the link, though the report lists those data uses only as opportunities [3]. The third outcome is the dullest and perhaps the likeliest: most users stop at the login screen, and the integration stays a button on a chart.
I think the competition among these firms happens after the click. With Webull, the report names six US partners [1], so being next to the post does not set any one of them apart. The difference is how many X users already have an account at the other end, because those users skip registration. Webull reports more than 28 million registered users across 18 markets [12]. That is a global figure for a US program [5]. The report does not break out US users, funded accounts or the terms Webull agreed to.
This view is wrong if a partner reports cashtag referrals as a material source of new funded accounts. That would show users getting through registration in volume.
What to watch
- Any disclosure of what Cashtag partners pay X, whether per referral, per funded account or as a flat fee.
- A Webull product that actually uses X sentiment or Cashtag activity data, moving the data clause from opportunity to feature.
- How X orders or selects among the six partners when a user taps to trade a given symbol.