It turns out that a congressional hearing, which is partly focused on investigating stock inflating on the internet, is a great opportunity for stock inflating on the internet.
Thursday’s House Financial Services Committee hearing on the recent volatility in GameStop stocks was an overwhelmingly serious matter. Unless you watched the hearing on YouTube, where a fast-flowing comment section gave netizens an opportunity to tout their favorite speculative stocks, cryptocurrency, or even their favorite mildly radioactive commodity. In this online community, disabling caps lock is optional and rocket emojis are mandatory.
“DON’T BUY A DOG, IT’S A MEMECOIN. BUY BITCOIN.” One commenter wrote. “Vaxart for COVID PILL VACCINE,” read another in a reference to the biotech startup that wants to develop an oral vaccine against the coronavirus.
Other commentators were there to remind the community that in addition to speculative stocks and cryptocurrency, there are other asset classes – one can bet on commodities too. “URANIUM, URANIUM, URANIUM,” wrote one commenter, although it was unclear whether they were bullish or bearish.
Whatever the internet decides to then offer en masse, it’s safe to say that not everyone has learned a lesson from GameStop’s epic rise and fall.