Reddit Group That Shot Up Gamestop (GME), WallStreetBets, Now Eyeing Bitcoin & DOGE

Wall Street is now calling allies for help as retail traders that have formed the group, WallStreetBets (WSB), working on annihilating them one by one.

After GameStop (GME) shares were pushed to $372, currently trading around $347.51, major brokerages TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab restricted the trading of GameStop and AMC stocks.

Robinhood is also raising the requirement to 100%, saying it doesn't allow its customers to trade naked options.

But not only has this run-up slipping into other areas of the market, such as Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) and retailer Express Inc. (EXPR), which skyrocketed, WallStreetBets is also targeting silver now, but in other countries as well.

Day traders and retail investors in India and China are also using the opportunities to pump up stock prices, reported Bloomberg.

Moreover, in Europe, the likes of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, in Tokyo E-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. and baby-care goods maker Pigeon Corp. that are short-seller favorites, are also climbing up.

Halt it All

In the light of this, restrictions are being put on by social media platforms. WSB was set to private on Reddit by mods and banned from Discord for “hate speech, glorifying violence, and spreading misinformation.”

“To be clear, we did not ban this server due to financial fraud related to GameStop or other stocks,” read Discord’s statement.

Amidst all this, the SEC also stepped in releasing a joint statement, which says they are aware of the “on-going market volatility” and is actively monitoring and “working with our fellow regulators to assess the situation and review the activities of regulated entities, financial intermediaries, and other market participants.”

Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman rather came out heavily as she suggested that the exchange can halt trading activity for stocks in case of manipulation. She told CNBC’s, Joe Kernen,

“I think that, in general, when we evaluate how we would manage through a situation where you see a significant run-up in a stock not based on news, not based on fundamentals — what we do is we do have technology that evaluates social media chatter. If we see a significant rise in the chatter on social media channels … we also match that up against unusual trading activity, [and] potentially halt that stock to allow ourselves to investigate the situation, to be able to engage with the company, and to give investors a chance to recalibrate their positions.”

GME and AMC Theaters are listed on NYSE and out of Freidman’s scope, but some regulators have been calling for the same.

Massachusetts’ top securities regulator Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin asked NYSE “to consider simply suspending it for a month and stop trading it.”

Turns to Decentralization

In the light of this censorship, it was only a matter of time that the group found its way to Bitcoin and the decentralized industry.

“At some point, these r/wallstreetbets dudes will figure out that BTC is the biggest financial protest,” tweeted Haralabos Voulgaris, Head of Quantitative Research Dallas Mavericks. “As will everyone else.”

And so they did!

Late on Wednesday or early Thursday, WSB Chairman tweeted, “The WSB mods want power. I want decentralization,” and then proceeded to enquire about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in separate tweets.

“Bitcoin or GameStop in-store credits?”

Anybody own Bitcoin?

— WSB Chairman (@WSBChairman) January 28, 2021

The biggest gainer of this was the meme coin, Dogecoin (DOGE), which continues to get the love. Previously Tesla founder Elon Musk has also tweeted about Dogecoin on several occasions that pumped its prices.

The same happened this time as well, as WSB Chairman said, “A lot of you are talking about Dogecoin. What’s that? A meme crypto?”

And DOGE took the cue and jumped nearly 105% to $0.0146. DOGE -2.07% Dogecoin / USD DOGEUSD $ 0.07
$0.00-2.07% Volume 365.42 m Change $0.00 Open $0.07 Circulating 132.67 b Market Cap 9.59 b 1 y Ray Dalio says, Bitcoin Is An “Alternative Money” While NFTs An Investment; May Also Become A Type of Money 1 y Dogecoin Foundation Working with Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik for DOGE Staking Proposal 1 y DOGE Sucking Liquidity from Crypto Market Again, Tesla to Accept Dogecoin Again For Merch

But this might be just the start as WallStreetBets is looking to give the meme coin its proper moon pump to $1.

Has Doge ever been to a dollar?

— WSB Chairman (@WSBChairman) January 28, 2021

The crypto community is excited about the Wall Street retail getting on in cryptocurrency and suggests they look into decentralized finance (DeFi) as well.

“WSB + Tesla + Bitcoin = Wall Street nightmare,” commented Bitcoin proponent Anthony Pomliano.