In brief
- WallStreetBets worked together to help drive the price of GameStop shares to nearly $350 in January.
- Moderators have so far not allowed cryptocurrency discussions.
- That policy is changing.
WallStreetBets (WSB), the Reddit forum that helped boost GameStop stock from the basement to the penthouse, is expanding its reach to cryptocurrency.
The decision by moderators marks a reversal for the subreddit, which long felt that it would overpower the main mission of WSB: to discuss publicly traded stocks.
"I don't see the point in delaying the inevitable anymore as crypto is here to stay," posted moderator "bawse1" today. "After much deliberation, we've decided to allow for discussion about only BTC, ETH and DOGE only [sic]."
Discussion will be limited to a single thread so "as to not burden everyone with crypto spam."
The move comes the same day as the lines between stock and cryptocurrency markets blurred a little more. Coinbase, the San Francisco cryptocurrency exchange, today went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The exchange, which allows trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum but not Dogecoin, makes the bulk of its revenue from transaction fees; should crypto trading volumes decrease, the value of the company would likely decline.
Dogecoin seems custom-built for WSB redditors. The meme coin, created as a joke using a Shiba Inu as its mascot, isn't entirely dissimilar from meme stock GameStop, the video game retailer that was once a staple of malls and rural areas with spotty internet bandwidth. WSB members waged an aggressive campaign to pump the price of the stock, employing its discussion threads to encourage small investors to keep buying. The stock, which many hedge funds were betting heavily against, went from under $20 on January 12 to $347 on January 27.
Doge has benefitted from a grassroots publicity campaign as well. Though it had never traded above the $0.02 mark until this year, it has rocketed all the way to a high of $0.12,. Its profile has been boosted by cryptic Elon Musk tweets and Mark Cuban's decision to accept Dogecoin at Dallas Mavericks games.
Bitcoin and Ethereum, the other two crypto tokens allowed in the WSB crypto thread, remain the largest and second-largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, respectively.
Are they here to stay?
Discuss.