The GameStop (GME) saga is set to take another twist as a trader prepares to tell the American House of Representatives that social media has allowed retail traders to leveling the playing field with their bitter Wall Street rivals, a strategy that is also coming good for thousands of crypto investors in the locked-down world of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a virtual hearing of the House’s Financial Committee entitled Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide, a number of the saga’s key players will make their voices heard, including Reddit’s CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman and the under-fire Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, whose firm is also suspected of hoarding a 28% share in the runaway dogecoin (DOGE) token.
Social media-related activities have also seen the prices of tokens like the meme-themed DOGE token skyrocket, as some investors attempt to turn the tides of volatility in their favor.
Wall Street managers have accused r/WallStreetBets, a Reddit community, or “subreddit,” and others of what amounts to “market manipulation.”
Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, appeared set to grab the popcorn in anticipation of the hearing, calling the testimony “truly, a fine work of performance art,” and tweeting,
“The idea that I used social media to promote GameStop stock to unwitting investors is preposterous. Hedge funds and other Wall Street firms have teams of analysts working together to compile research and critique investment ideas, while individual investors have not had that advantage.”
Gill added,
“WallStreetBets may look sophomoric or chaotic from the outside, but the fact that we are here today means they’ve managed to raise important issues about fairness and opportunity in our financial system. I’m proud they used Reddit to do so.”
The subreddit has now over 9.1m members. It had less than 3m members at the end of January.
And other witnesses have already had their two cents on the matter prior to the hearing – which commences at midday in Washington DC (17:00 UTC).