BREAKDOWN: Have the Hedge Funds Infiltrated Reddit’s WallStreetBets?
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2021
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The media keeps saying WallStreetBets is going after silver; WallStreetBets members say it’s a campaign to co-opt and divide them.
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.
Today on the Brief:
- Elon Musk talks bitcoin on Clubhouse
- India trying to ban crypto?
- DEXs have best month ever in January
Our main discussion: Has WallStreetBets been infiltrated by hedge funds?
Reddit community WallStreetBets became headline news last week when its short squeeze of GameStop (GME) nearly brought a famed hedge fund to its knees. According to Twitter personalities and the mainstream media, the community has now turned its focus to squeezing silver.
Except, one cursory look at the subreddit shows that isn’t the case. Instead, it is full of posts about how hedge funds and media are trying to promote the silver story to distract and divide the community.
In this episode, NLW tries to break down what’s happening and argues that now that WSB has become a market force, these sort of attempts to influence its conversation are going to become de rigeur.
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Image credit: Nicky Loh/Bloomberg via Getty Images and WallStreetBets Subreddit
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If a new asset narrative quote-unquote invades WSB, who has more legitimacy? |
| 0:06.0 | The 5 million newbies who joined over the weekend are the original million OGs. |
| 0:10.5 | These are the types of battles that are going to be fought, which is all a reminder that this |
| 0:16.0 | is a real meaningful force in markets now. It is not dismissable and it is not ignorable. I don't know |
| 0:24.1 | exactly what's happening with Silver, but I know we need to be paying attention to it. Welcome |
| 0:30.4 | back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture |
| 0:37.4 | power shifts remaking our world. |
| 0:40.7 | The breakdown is sponsored by nexo.io and produced and distributed by CoinDesk. |
| 0:47.4 | What's going on, guys? It is Monday, February 1st, and today we are asking the question, |
| 0:53.9 | have the hedge funds infiltrated Wall Street |
| 0:56.8 | bets? First up, however, let's do the brief. First up on the brief today is Elon Musk's |
| 1:03.1 | appearance on Clubhouse last night. For those of you who aren't familiar, Clubhouse is an audio-only |
| 1:09.7 | social network. It's organized around |
| 1:12.1 | room where people moderate discussions that anyone in the room can join if they're invited by the |
| 1:17.0 | moderators. It is the current Silicon Valley darling, and frankly, I had some skepticism at first. |
| 1:23.2 | I had a little bit of personal disinterest because the early rooms that I saw were all Silicon Valley insider baseball tech wankery. |
| 1:30.6 | And I also wasn't sure how people would build followings. |
| 1:33.8 | And I think it's really important with any new social network to have a clear path where people can build followings. |
| 1:39.6 | Otherwise, there's less of an incentive to stay there when the network is early. |
| 1:43.5 | Clubhouse, I will admit, |
| 1:44.6 | however, has gotten more interesting. The audience has gotten a lot more diverse. It's up to about |
| 1:49.2 | 5 million people. Every room is about, it seems, making money, hustling, investing. I've also gotten |
... |
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