Asian DeFi Traders Get In On GameStop Stock Craze

By Jeff Benson

In the last two weeks, millions of US investors, at the urging of a reddit group known as WallStreetBets (WSB) have bought billions in stock for a retail video game outlet that, thanks to store closures, you might not even be able to find at your local mall.

Retail investors outside of the US, where GameStop (GME) trades on the New York Stock Exchange, have looked at the craziness and said: We want in.

Users of Mirror Protocol, a synthetic assets protocol that tokenizes popular stocks, have voted to whitelist GameStop and AMC Entertainment on the platform. That means that, as soon as Monday, non-US residents will be able to buy DeFi versions of GameStop and AMC after a decentralized Robinhood rival.

Mirror is something of a decentralized Robinhood that Seoul-based Terraform Labs launched in December 2020. It works by creating “mirrored assets”—tokenized versions of the real thing that mirror the asset’s price movement. Its primary use case is to extend access to US equities to retail investors based outside the US. At this point, the primary user base is in Southeast Asia.

Thus far, it has enabled trading in 14 assets, including Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Tesla. But, explained Terra Head of Communications Brian Curran, thanks to the MIR governance token, users can propose and vote on new additions at any time by staking MIR.

“We have no control over this process,” he told Decrypt. “In the wake of the WSB/GME situation, the community proposed listing AMC + GME among some other assets, which are completing the parameter registration vote now for whitelisting on Mirror, where they will trade as synthetic mAssets.”

Once that process is complete, probably this weekend, anyone can trade them. “This will enable mGME and mAMC to be available on Uniswap, TerraSwap, and Binance Smart Chain DeFi apps like Pancake AMM,” Curran noted, naming popular decentralized exchanges and automated market makers that allow users to swap tokens automatically without third-party approval. “We anticipate adding more blockchains in the near future to access mAssets.”

While the addition of governance tokens to DeFi protocols certainly democratizes access to certain assets, in this case it may be a bit late given that the frenzy is dying down.

After peaking at a close-of-day high of $347 on January 27, the price of GME has plummeted to $92.41 today. Likewise, AMC, which enjoyed less time in the spotlight, took a bow today with share prices at $8.97, less than half of its January 27 high of $19.90.

Mirror isn’t the only platform to get in on GameStop trading. After Robinhood temporarily halted GameStop trading due to liquidity issues, US cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex began offering tokenized stocks. FTX, a popular crypto derivatives exchange, also has tokenized GME stocks. Both, however, are centralized exchanges, whereas Mirror uses decentralized governance.

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