The influence of Reddit’s r/Wallstreetbets subreddit has apparently spread to the cryptocurrency space, after a new coin appeared at the top of CoinMarketCap’s rankings on Friday.
Dubbed WallStreetBets (WSB), the new coin apparently gained in excess of 130% in the past 24 hours, with a daily trade volume of $100 million.
However, the new coin appears to be the latest in a series of jokes played by the CoinMarketCap team. The coin’s page on CMC features the following message:
“All UR MeMes R belong to us and Charmander-marth!!11. We seek alpha and master beta. Please note that this is a joke and no such asset exists. If you see similarly-named projects, please perform the requisite due diligence and do not ape in.”
The reference to Charmander-marth links to a YouTube video featuring Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya being interviewed by CNBC regarding his successful trading of GameStop stocks during the short-squeeze initiated by the r/Wallstreetbets subreddit.
The coin’s CMC page offers up a brief timeline of the GameStop saga, describing the short-squeeze tactic and the subsequent effect it had on the Robinhood trading app, which suspended retail trading for GameStop and several other stocks, including AMC, Nokia and Blackberry.
Clicking the link to the coin’s white paper links to the Twitter page of "MuzlM_Trader," whose tweet also drew attention to Chamath Palihapitiya’s appearance on CNBC.
Bruhhh he keeps exposing their shit you heard it from @chamath the market is different and will continue to be volatile moving into the future... whose ready to be rich???? $cciv $gme $nakd $nok $Tesla etc... pic.twitter.com/Chake5mkTF
— MuzLM Trader (@MuzLM_Trader) January 27, 2021
The influence of the subreddit on the cryptocurrency space was also witnessed in the price surge initiated by Dogecoin (DOGE), which briefly broke into the market capitalization top 10 following a 570% increase in its spot price. DOGE's surge was also orchestrated on Reddit.