GameStop, Robinhood and Reddit

This past year we have seen social media tools changing the world. Users on Reddit got together and decided to punish short sellers of GameStop. By banding together and buying GameStop stock these investors caused GameStop stock prices to skyrocket, which caused hedge funds to lose billions of dollars. Melvin Capital lost a ton of money and had to accept a $2.75 billion bailout from outside sources. Robinhood responded by freezing trading of GameStop stock on their platform. This was unprecedented and some say unethical. It is almost like they decided to stop the bleeding of the hedge funds (rich people) that made risky, big bets that exploded in their face. In the last 24 hours other Redditors have hyped up Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that was created as a joke (based off an Internet meme about a Japanese dog breed). The price of Dogecoin, which is not available on reputable platforms such as Coinbase, has shot up over 300%. Social media was used by people to rally the troops and invade the Capitol on January 6th, which resulted in the deaths of 5 people and sent Donald Trump out the door in disgrace, impeached for a second time. It will be interesting to see if the SEC responds to these latest developments with new regulations. We live in unprecedented times and social media is a big driver of these massive changes.

#dogecoin #crypto #reddit #gamestop #robinhood