Social media platform StockTwits is partnering with FTX to launch crypto trading service

• Stocktwits is launching a live trading feature for users amid the boom in retail investing.
• First on its list of assets offered are cryptocurrencies, in partnership with Sam Bankman Fried's FTX.
• The new capability will allow users to make trades while staying on the platform.

Social media platform Stocktwits is launching a live trading feature amid the boom in retail investing. And first on its list of assets to be offered are cryptocurrencies, in partnership with Sam Bankman Fried's FTX.

The new capability will allow users to make trades while staying on the platform. Stocktwits currently has over 6 million registered users and reaches over 5 million monthly.

"The community and data have served as a strong on-ramp into the platform, but the addition of execution on the platform is a key product expansion that will help us to better serve our users," CEO Rishi Khanna said in a statement Thursday.

Before this, the New York-based company mostly offered data tools and social features that are designed to encourage discussions between investors and traders. But Stocktwits recently acknowledged that crypto has been evolving to become a "sizable" part of the discussions on its site.

Stocktwits was founded in 2008 and credits itself for popularizing "cashtags" — the combination of a dollar sign and a ticker symbol ($TSLA, $AMZN, $COIN) — that are often seen in social media conversations today.

It entered mainstream prominence in 2021 as it joined other platforms such as Robinhood at the heart of the pandemic's retail trading mania.

In December 2020, the company raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Alameda Research Ventures, also owned by Bankman-Fried, pushing its valuation to $210 million.