The world is watching US markets with great interest and more than a little FOMO as Reddit investors continue to test their power against Wall Street.
It all began when retail investors on the Reddit community’s Wall Street bets began to raise the price of shares in US video game retailer GameStop (GME) to counter Wall Street hedge funds that were “short selling” or betting against it. What the Reddit group did and the mainstream reaction when the stock skyrocketed reminded many of the crypto trading.
In the meantime, the world is watching, and some are seeing what happened to GameStop as a more global story where ordinary investors take over the power of big institutions.
“We are very interested in what is happening in the US for many reasons. For some of us it is the feeling that we can now play in the market too and we also see the markets actually being manipulated to serve only the rich. This is not a movie. … We saw this happen, “Bernard Parah, founder and CEO of Nigerian crypto trading startup Bitnob, told CoinDesk via email.
According to Parah, Nigerian investors bought GME with a number of apps, including Bamboo and Trove, that enable trading in US stocks.
Small retail investors were quick to make a move in India, and GameStop became one of the top five most traded stocks on Stockal, a platform used by Indian investors to trade US stocks, according to Bloomberg.
Private investors in China also wanted to participate, with some users excitedly sharing their profits on social media. There are around 177 million private investors in China.
Continue reading: After GME, Dogecoin and Bitcoin, Chinese traders are betting on what pumps next
After U.S. retail platform Robinhood prevented users from buying certain trending stocks including GME, European investors who still had access kept trading: wallstreetbets said they helped keep the GME price high despite the trading restrictions .
“With GME you can feel the power of people all over the world. … After the Europeans, the Asians are participating in the struggle to support the movement. It makes your blood boil when you look at it, ”wrote a Chinese user of the popular Weibo social media app.
According to Tracy Alloway, a journalist at Bloomberg, Reddit investors’ strategy to combat short selling stocks has been globalized: Bloomberg reported earlier this week that stocks rallied sharply in Australia and Japan. Nikkei Asia reported that the same trend was seen in Hong Kong and Malaysia.
Crypto spillover
The turbulence didn’t stop there. Soon, Reddit investors were pumping other short positions or meme stocks, including Dogecoin (DOGE), a cryptocurrency created as a hoax. DOGE started rallying after a Twitter user who describes himself as the chairman of wallstreetbets (although not affiliated with the subreddit) asked followers about the cryptocurrency.
In response to the hype, the Nigerian social payments app Bundle Africa listed Dogecoin on Friday. An hour later, it was the second most bought asset on Bundle that day.
“We definitely feel the spill over to crypto when people buy DOGE in response to what is happening in the US,” Bundle CEO Yele Badosi told CoinDesk on Twitter.
Continue reading: GameStop Investing Craze “Proof of Concept” for Bitcoin’s Success, Says Scaramucci
Colombian investors became curious about Dogecoin, Alejandro Beltrán, country manager of the crypto exchange Buda.com told CoinDesk. Buda.com does not list Dogecoin and currently has no plans to do so, Beltrán added.
Some users in Japan watched the Dogecoin price with skepticism, with one user comparing it to a local meme-based cryptocurrency called Monacoin.
“There is a notable activity in the market this week that has not yet been classified as healthy or otherwise,” Jon Squires, CEO of Crypto Exchange Currency.com, told CoinDesk.
According to Squires, the platform had ten times the number of new customers on Thursday.
In Nigeria, according to Parah, there was a lot of activity in the various investment communities.
“Even with WhatsApp status, people ask things like, ‘What’s a quick press? “or” What does it mean to fall short? “… It was crazy to watch this in real time,” Parah said.
