The Reddit forum famous for making GameStopâs (GME) stock price a household topic has banned all discussion of cryptocurrencies less than 24 hours after tentatively allowing a daily discussion thread, with restrictions.
WallStreetBets, a subreddit that describes itself as âlike 4chan found a Bloomberg terminal,â has long banned cryptocurrency discussion. It lifted this ban on three cryptocurrencies â bitcoin, ether and dogecoin â though it continued banning âcrypto spamâ on Wednesday, after Coinbaseâs direct public listing.Â
On Thursday, the ban was reinstated, citing the deleterious effects of a Bloomberg article.
âDue to the article that was written @bloomberg who somehow felt that âWallStreetBets Bows to Crypto,ââ wrote moderator u/bawse1. âCrypto discussion is banned indefinitely. Iâve read a lot of dumb articles written about wsb. This one takes the cake.â
The moderator wrote on Wednesday that the ânegatives outweighed the positivesâ with regard to allowing crypto discussion on the forum, saying WSB is primarily focused on the stock market. Still, the moderator acknowledged that âthere are just as manyâ individuals who are interested in crypto.
The top reply: âRIP WSB CRYPTO 4/14-2021 â 4/15-2021.â
WSB, which has existed on Reddit for about nine years, hit mainstream attention at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 after pumping GameStopâs stock price nearly 2,000%, spurring multiple investigations and congressional hearings.Â
The stock pumping also raised questions about Robinhoodâs âpayment for order flowâ method, as well as the role of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, which underpins the entire U.S. public stock market.
Jamie Crawley contributed reporting.