It turns out that a hearing in Congress aimed, in part, at investigating stock pumping on the Internet is a great opportunity to, well, stockpile stocks on the Internet.
Thursday’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on the recent volatility of GameStop shares was a mostly serious matter. Unless you were watching the audience on YouTube, where a fast-flowing comments section gave netizens a chance to promote their speculative stocks, cryptocurrencies, or even their favorite slightly radioactive commodity. In this online community, disabling uppercase lock is optional and rocket emojis are required.
“DON’T BUY A DOG, IT’S A MEMECOIN. BUY A BITCOIN.” One commenter wrote. “Vaxart for COVID PILL VACCINE,” he enumerated in another, in a reference to the implementation of biotechnology with the goal of developing an oral vaccine for coronavirus.
There were other commentators to remind the community that there are other asset classes in addition to speculative stocks and cryptocurrencies; you can also bet on commodities. “URANIUM, URANIUM, URANIUM,” one commenter wrote, though it wasn’t clear if they were bullish or bearish.
Regardless of what the Internet decides to bid en masse for below, it’s safe to say that not everyone learned a lesson from the epic rise and fall of GameStop.