A new blockchain-based application aimed at combating market manipulation in traditional finance has been launched by WallStreetBets, the Reddit-based grassroots movement that achieved notoriety for short-squeezing hyper-leveraged financial firms
Investors are being exposed to various asset in a completely decentralized manner, by the creation of WallStreetBets Exchange Traded Portfolios, or ETPs, as announced by the group.
The group further explained that an alternative to kind of the market manipulation by opaque and politically connected banks and hedge funds, is the basis of WallstreetBets ETP.
Portfolio rebalancing is the sole domain of community members who exercise their rights through the forthcoming WSB token, because the product is powered by a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO.
The group has engaged experts from the fields of blockchain and fintech to design the new offering, though they didn’t say the exact time it will be launched.
Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the r/Wallstreetbets subreddit, called the merger between blockchain and financial markets the “next logical step for finance,” adding that “It will result in stronger, more democratized markets and will empower individuals around the world.”
The r/Wallstreetbets subreddit currently has 10 million members, having more than doubled since late January when the GameStop drama first unfolded. WallStreetBets burst into the spotlight after its community collectively gobbled up shares of heavily shorted GameStop and AMC stocks, sending their price soaring — and torching short-selling hedge funds in the process. Wall Street’s best and brightest betting against these so-called “meme stocks” lost over $5 billion on the ordeal