Why the GameStop Insanity Is So Similar to Crypto - Ep.162

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and founder of FTX, describes what happened between the Subreddit Wall Street Bets and hedge funds around the stock of GameStop this week. In this episode, he covers:

what happened with the stock of video game retailer GameStop this week

what that says about how to value a stock

how the traditional financial establishment reacted

how the events in GameStop this week are similar to the way crypto markets operate

how a crypto financial system could affect the ability of investors to do what the hedge funds did with GameStop — shorting more shares of the stock than actually exist

what led to FTX listing for tokenized versions of GameStop, Blackberry, AMC and Nokia, as well as a tokenized index fund of Wall Street Bets stocks

how the tokenized stocks and index work on the back end

why Robinhood restricted customers from purchasing shares in GameStop on Thursday

what the inspiration was for FTX

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: http://crypto.com

The Sun Exchange: http://sunexchange.com

Episode links:

Sam Bankman-Fried: https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda

FTX: https://ftx.com

Roundups of what happened with Gamestop: 

NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/business/gamestop-wall-street-bets.html

Vox: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22249458/gamestop-stock-wallstreetbets-reddit-citron

Early Wired story: https://www.wired.com/story/gamestop-stock-wall-street-bets-short-squeeze/

NYT analysis: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/28/technology/gamestop-stock.html

Sam on what can determine an asset’s price: https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda/status/1354790766313234432?s=20

Chamath Palihapitiya on CNBC discussing Gamestop — defending individual investors: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/chamath-palihapitiya-closes-gamestop-position-but-defends-individual-investors-right-to.html

Videos: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/01/27/investor-chamath-palihapitiya-the-gamestop-story-is-pushback-against-wall-street-establishment.html

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/01/27/billionaire-investor-chamath-palihapitiya-on-gamestop-surge-and-rise-of-retail-investors.html

Gamestop price gyrations: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/gamestop-reverses-losses-and-surges-another-30percent-in-the-premarket-to-450-as-mania-continues.html 

How many shares of GME are shorted: https://isthesqueezesquoze.com

FTX lists GME for tokenized spot and futures trading: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/92756/ftx-lists-gme-stock-for-tokenized-spot-futures-trading

FTX’s Wall Street Bets tokenized index fund: https://twitter.com/SBF_Alameda/status/1354790817060143114?s=20

Robinhood customers only being able to sell, not buy GME when Robinhood’s revenue biggest revenue source is sending order flow to hedge funds: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/28/robinhood-interactive-brokers-restrict-trading-in-gamestop-s.html

Matt Levine of Bloomberg on GameStop: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-28/knowing-when-to-sell-gamestop-stock-at-the-top-is-impossible?sref=m9L277rN

Link to the Crypto News Recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-gamestop-is-like-crypto/