Social platform behind ‘retail short squeeze’ launches crypto trading

Stocktwits plans to expand its crypto trading services by launching U.S. equity trading and crypto derivatives trading in the coming months.

Investor-focused social media platform Stocktwits, which gained popularity during last year’s ‘retail short squeeze’ frenzy involving GameStop and AMCTheaters, rolled out its own crypto trading services on Thursday.

Stocktwits has partnered with FTX.US to carry out its crypto trading services and is set to launch US equity trading next quarter. The firm further looks to expand its trading services portfolio by offering crypto derivatives trading and other asset classes in the coming months.

Big day here at Stocktwits

We’re excited to share the launch of our fully integrated crypto trading, powered by @FTX_US, right in our iOS app!

Update your iOS app and combine the power of our Community with a best-in-class crypto platform.https://t.co/V0oAyIpaWX

— Stocktwits (@Stocktwits) February 3, 2022

Stocktwits boasts of 6 million registered users and sees 5 million active users monthly. The new crypto trading option would allow users to trade directly from their profile and allow them to showcase their portfolio as well.

The social network platform played a key role along with the subreddit r/wallstreetbets to short squeeze meme stocks in February 2021, leading to billions of dollars in losses for hedge funds who bought millions of short positions against these stocks. The crypto community offered great support during the retail saga and asked several companies associated with it to integrate crypto as a protest against centralized bullying.

Related: New decentralized crypto exchange is inspired by r/Wallstreetbets

The social platform until now was primarily focused on discussions between investors and traders along with other data tools. The CEO of the platform Rishi Khanna acknowledged the growing prominence of crypto discussion on the network and said that the “community and data have served as a strong on-ramp into the platform.”

The launch of the live crypto trading feature would help Stocktwits join the growing list of companies from the short squeeze saga that have integrated crypto-related services. AMC integrated crypto payments for its online booking services while GameStop is entering NFTs and also plans to build new crypto partnerships.