Social-media platform Stocktwits takes cue from brokerages, adds crypto trading

livemint.com:

Stocktwits, the social-media service for retail investors, is adding live trading as an option for its users within the platform.

The first assets Stocktwits users will be able to trade are cryptocurrencies. The platform plans to expand into equities trading later this quarter.

Brokerages such as Robinhood Markets Inc., Webull and eToro have grown in popularity in part by adding social components to trading, incorporating chat feeds and trending stocks. The payment app, Venmo, also gained ground because of its social feeds and emoji.

With this move, the social-media platform is doing the reverse.

The crypto exchange FTX will be providing the infrastructure for Stocktwits’ crypto trading. Fees for crypto trading will be the same as they are on FTX, which has a tiered fee structure.

Stocktwits, founded in 2008, raised $30 million in a fundraising round in December that included Alameda Research Ventures, owned by Sam Bankman-Fried, who also owns FTX.

Stocktwits has added about 2 million registered users over the past two years, pushing its total to 6 million, and many of them are focused on crypto. Cryptocurrencies have ballooned into a $1.8 trillion market from $260 billion before the pandemic started two years ago.

As a result, digital currencies such as bitcoin and ethereum are among the most talked about assets on Stocktwits, said Chief Executive Rishi Khanna, and completely dominate the platform on weekends, when they are still trading but equities aren’t.

There is another reason the company is starting with crypto as opposed to equities—there are fewer regulatory hurdles to offering crypto trading, Mr. Khanna said.

What will make Stocktwits different from other commoditized trading services, Mr. Khanna said, is its