Those are not monkey business. Members of the Reddit group – who got national attention for their role in pumping up January’s trading frenzy GameStopGMEAMCAMC and other meme stocks – gathered over the weekend to use their earnings to symbolically ‘adopt’ gorillas through donations to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
Why gorillas? It’s a bit of an inside joke: members of WallStreetBets call themselves and others “monkeys” on the page, as part of the group’s internal jargon.
It all started Saturday when a member of WallStreetBets adopted a baby gorilla called Urungano from the organization on behalf of GameStop. Since then, Dian Fossey has received thousands of new adoptions and more than $ 333,000 in donations, compared to about 20 adoptions on a typical weekend, a spokesman said.
“Used unrealized GME profits to adopt a gorilla,” a WallStreetBets poster said on the site.
“Monkeys saving monkeys,” said another.
Investors of WallStreetBets sent GameStop’s shares up more than 1,500% earlier this year, putting pressure on hedge funds that shorted stocks and sparking a conversation about whether individual retail investors’ access to Wall Street equals those of large institutional investors.
A poster from WallStreetBets said Monday that the increase in donations to help gorillas pointed to the benefits of making stock trading more accessible to individuals. Some members of the group have also spoken in recent days about donating some of their “tendies” (or earnings) from trading GameStop stock to workers in game retail stores.
“Monkeys on Reddit will use (profits) to donate to charities, pay medical bills, help the needy in their community,” the user said. “I can’t wait for the wealth to be returned to the little man and for everyone to benefit.”
GameStop shares fell quickly after peaking at around $ 350 during the January trading frenzy. But in recent weeks, the stock has started to rally again, trading around $ 200 on Monday, up more than 66% since the beginning of this month. Many WallStreetBets members say they are still holding onto the stock in the hope that profits will continue.
The Dian Fossey Fund said in a tweet thread that gorillas are in fact “a great investment,” adding that money will be spent tracking, tracking and studying wild gorillas and their habitat. The fund says it is the “largest and longest-running” gorilla protection organization in the world.
Gorillas live in the Congo Basin, the world’s second largest rainforest and a natural defense against #climate change, the group said. “If we save gorillas, we save the planet. How’s that for #ROI?”
The organization’s CEO, Tara Stoinski, also posted a video on WallStreetBets, thanking the Redditors for helping fuel the donations.
“Hi WallStreetBets … I just learned that you guys are adopting gorillas through our website,” said Stoinski in the video. “I just wanted to thank you very much for this incredible support.”
