The explosive price development of GameStop stock, driven by a forum on Reddit, has now also reached FTX, a popular trading platform in the crypto industry. As of now, GameStop is traded there on the spot market and as futures.
The capers in the price curve of GameStop shares have been occupying the business press for days: Using the example of the ailing retail chain for computer games, private investors who meet on Reddit in the subforum r/wallstreetbets are celebrating a power struggle with the Wall Street establishment. The bold bet, worth billions, is that we, the often ridiculed small investors, are collectively stronger than the big funds, which think they are always right because of the amount of capital they manage. This spectacle is carried out over large-scale purchases of the GameStop share on the part of the rebels against the thereby vulnerable short positions with Gamestop, which are responsible for established funds. We reported on this here. With FTX jumps now a commercial platform on the train, which took up already earlier in the trend lying speculation objects fast into its offer.
Because FTX announced without further ado via Twitter to make GameStop tradable on the spot market and as futures with immediate effect. In doing so, FTX maps the GameStop share as a token, similar to the trading of securities of Tesla or Apple there, for example. In an interview, FTC CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said listing a stock on FTX has never been more in demand by customers than GameStop. On Twitter, Bankman-Fried commented succinctly on GameStop’s trading start, “Why not?”
Meanwhile, the price of GameStop closed yesterday’s trading day at 347 US dollars – at the turn of the year, GameStop was still listed at just under 20 US dollars. In this price region, large funds had placed their short seller positions for GameStop, hoping for profits. In the meantime, their losses have added up to several billion US dollars, as they are forced to buy GameStop at the unrealistic maximum prices dictated by their hitherto widely unknown and underestimated opponents from Reddit.
In the meantime, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also weighed in via Twitter, revealing sympathy for the stock market rebels. Musk called the spectacle “Gamestonk,” with “stonk” meaning “bombardment” in English and also “stink” in slang, making a language play around Gamestop. Musk linked to the now famous Reddit group and probably remembered that Tesla also had to deal with short sellers.
Bottom line: want to gamble? Trade GameStop at FTX
FTX had already offered bets on the outcome of the US presidential election and on negative prices for oil. FTX also attracted attention with its trick of making AirBnB and Coinbase tokens tradable even before the IPO. Now it’s GameStop – arguably the hottest security in the world right now. Anyone entering the GameStop battleground should bear in mind: In this culture war is fenced without limits, with Melvin Capital the first traditional investment fund is to stand because of GameStop already before the bankruptcy.
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