• Social investing and trading platform eToro has partnered with social media platform X.
• eToro will publish investment education content on X, leveraging investment experts and thought leaders from its eToro Academy.
• Founded in 2007, eToro has won Finovate Best of Show awards on each of its six Finovate appearances.

It may not be a step on the road to making X a payments superapp, but the decision to partner with eToro to publish investment education content on the social media platform is among the most interesting fintech/financial-related moves from X to date.

eToro and X announced this week that they are working together to provide investment content on the social media platform via video, posts, and Spaces. The content will consist of insights and analysis from thought leaders from the investing community who will discuss a combination of breaking financial news, top trends in finance and investing, as well as investment fundamentals live on the platform. The material will be free to all X users and will be available in the U.S. and the U.K., as well as in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the UAE.

“We believe that there is power in shared knowledge,” eToro Co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia said. “It’s why we created a collaborative, social investment platform, and it’s why we prioritize financial education through our eToro Academy. Having been long-term collaborators with X, we are delighted to extend our partnership to provide more opportunities for financial learning and the sharing of investment insights on X.”

The partnership announcement comes with a renewed agreement for title sponsorship for X’s real-time Cashtag feature. This feature provides charting tools and data from TradingView on stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other assets, as well as the ability to trade and invest with eToro.

“Bringing eToro Academy to X is testament to the strength of the partnership we have built together and the continued growth of the financial investment conversation on X,” the social media platform’s CEO Linda Yaccarino said. “The continued success of our collaboration will bring more high-quality video content to the service, building on our innovation around cashtags and new features.”

To Yaccarino’s point about the growth of what used to be called “fintwit,” it’s worth knowing that there were more than 1.4 billion posts on X last year that were about trading or investing. This figure reflected year-over-year growth of 54%.

“We know that an increasing number of people turn to social media for accessible, relevant financial content,” Assia said. “It provides a forum for many who were excluded by more traditional channels. Partnering with X will enable us to deliver the very best in financial education to a global audience.”

Founded in 2007, eToro supports more than 35 million registered users and investors on its trading and investing platform. The company offers a collaborative investing community to help investors and traders learn the skills and develop the tools they need in order to reach their financial goals, whether through traditional assets or non-traditional assets. One of Finovate’s earliest and most popular alums, eToro won Best of Show in each of its six Finovate appearances from 2011 through 2017.

Photo by @coldbeer

• eToro announced it will pay investors 4.9% interest on idle cash held in their options account.
• Users must have at least $5,000 in idle cash to benefit from the interest rate, but investors with less than that can pay a fee to receive the 4.9% interest.
• The move not only indicates that eToro wants to keep hold of investors’ funds as they move their money out of risky investments, but it also signals that eToro likely won’t launch its own suite of banking tools any time soon.

After starting the year with a fresh $250 million in funding, social investment network eToro has experience with cash. Perhaps that’s why today the company is launching a feature that pays users interest on cash in their accounts.

The new option is meant to serve as another form of diversification for its investor clients. Currently eToro offers users the opportunity to invest in crypto, stocks, ETFs, and options trading. And while holding cash is usually considered a negative quality for investors, a high interest rate, combined with no risk of loss may make higher cash balances more palatable.

“Retail investors are constantly told to diversify their portfolio and ensure they’re maximizing their investments – our new high interest on cash offering helps investors make their money work even when it is at rest,” said eToro U.S. CEO Lule Demmissie. “Our high rate offering is accessible to real investors unlike other brokers who have high minimum balance requirements to earn their rates.”

The new interest on cash program is free for eligible users with an at-rest cash balance of $5,000 or more and the 4.9% interest is paid on cash reserves that are not actively invested. Users with a cash balance lower than $5,000 can still receive the 4.9% interest rate, but eToro will charge them a monthly fee.

Users can access the new interest on cash feature via eToro Options. At launch, accountholders will receive 4.9% APR on cash balances within their eToro Options account. This comes at a time when, in the U.S., the average yield for savings accounts is 0.61% APR.

As new and existing challenger banks bolster their offerings with high-yield interest rate accounts, it is becoming increasingly difficult (and more expensive) for banks to win over consumer deposits. Today’s move by eToro indicates two things. First, the company is seeking to stem the outflow of investor funds as they move their money from risky market opportunities into high-yield savings account safe havens. Secondly, it indicates that, unlike many other fintechs in the investing space, eToro is not planning to become a challenger bank by launching its own savings account and debit card any time soon.

A wealthtech pioneer, eToro was founded in 2007 and has received nearly $693 million in funding. The Israel-based company currently has over 32 million registered users from more than 100 countries on its platform. Yesterday, eToro announced it received approval from the Abu Dhabi Financial Markets Authority to operate in the UAE.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

• Twitter has selected eToro to provide real-time pricing data for its $Cashtags feature.
• The $Cashtag will not only show real-time pricing data, it will also enable users to navigate to the eToro platform to view more information and make a trade.
• The news comes about a month after Twitter CEO Elon Musk said he thinks it is possible Twitter could become “the biggest financial institution in the world.”

Social trading and investment network eToro unveiled it has partnered with Twitter. The tie-up will enable the social media platform’s $Cashtags feature to show users real-time prices for a range of stocks, crypto, and other assets.

Twitter first added pricing data on $Cashtags leveraging TradingView data late last year. However, the live pricing information was only available for select financial assets. With today’s partnership, eToro is expanding the list of assets to include more stocks, ETFs, crypto, and commodities. Moreover, Twitter users will be able to click the $Cashtag to navigate to the eToro platform, which will not only offer more information on the asset, but will also have the option to invest.

“Financial content on social media has provided education to many who have felt excluded by more traditional channels,” said eToro CEO Yoni Assia. “Twitter has become a crucial part of the retail investing community – it’s where millions of ordinary investors go every day to access financial news, share knowledge and converse. As the social investing network, eToro was built on these very principles – community, knowledge-sharing and better access to financial markets. There is power in shared knowledge and by transforming investing into a group endeavour, we can yield better results and become more successful, together.”

In piloting the launch of $Cashtag pricing data late last year, Twitter has seen widespread adoption among its users– even with the limited data. There have been more than 420 million searches for $Cashtags since the start of this year, with an average 4.7 million $Cashtag searches a day. Among the most commonly used $Cashtags are $TSLA, $SPY, and $BTC.

Today’s news comes about six months after Twitter CEO Elon Musk acquired the social media platform and declared plans to turn it into an “everything app.” At a Morgan Stanley Tech conference earlier this year, Musk specified that this vision revolved around payments. “I think it’s possible to create a very powerful finance experience,” said Musk. “Basically, I think it’s possible to become the biggest financial institution in the world, just by providing people with convenient payment options.”

Twitter’s partnership with eToro serves as the company’s first step towards becoming the “biggest financial institution in the world.” It also offers a hint into Twitter’s initial strategy when it comes to achieving that goal– as many U.S. banks have found, when it comes to rising to the top, partnerships are key.

Photo by Edgar on Unsplash

• Social investing platform eToro is launching eToro Art, a $20 million fund to support NFT creators.
• Once the company’s $20 million collection of NFTs is complete, eToro will be one of the world’s leading NFT collectors.
• eToro has made it clear that, while its new project supports creators, it is not an NFT marketplace.

When it comes to trends in fintech, NFTs are red hot. To capture some of this heat, social trading and investment network eToro is launching etoro Art, a $20 million fund to support NFT creators, agencies, and brands by purchasing blue chip NFTs and investing in emerging creators and NFT projects.

As part of etoro Art, the Israel-based company has amassed its own collection of NFTs, which includes projects from Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, World of Women, and pieces from emerging artists. After eToro spends the full $20 million on NFTs, the company will be one of the world’s leading NFT collectors. This week, eToro will debut its NFT collection during an event at the Bass Contemporary Art Museum in Miami.

eToro Cofounder and CEO Yoni Assia said that the company’s entrance into the NFT space “is only natural” and that the move will serve as the bridge to bring its community of 27 million registered users into NFTs and the metaverse. “We’re incredibly excited to see the developments in this space over the coming months,” Assia added.

As part of today’s move, eToro will spend an additional $10 million to support up-and-coming creators and brands on new, emerging projects. Creators simply fill out an intake application and, if they are selected to participate, eToro will offer “a range of support and services” to help them bring their project to fruition.

“As the leading social investing platform, eToro is well positioned to lead this space,” said eToro Art Managing Director Guy Hirsch. He added, “eToro.art will bring creators and investors together through technology, uniting communities around art.”

The company is making it clear that it is not launching an NFT marketplace. “No NFTs may be purchased through eToro by use of the services provided by eToro, and eToro is not responsible for any trading activity in NFTs which may occur on any third-party platforms to which eToro may direct its customers,” the company said in a statement. Instead, eToro Art is simply an aggregation platform with referral to third-party platforms.

Founded in 2007, eToro went public in a $10 billion SPAC last year. The company was an early adopter of cryptocurrency, having purchased 100 bitcoin in 2012.

Photo by Andrey Metelev on Unsplash