Markets turn zany

Dogecoin (DOGE) shot up as much as 140% in the span of 120 minutes earlier today after the meme-based crypto got a shout out from a widely followed Twitter account associated with Reddit-based "r/Wallstreetbets."

The popular trading forum drew international attention Wednesday for banding together to deal a debilitating blow to some Wall Street short-sellers. It's not every day that a cadre of retail investors can run over some big hedge funds. However, in a period of unprecedented this and never-before-seen that, give credit to the rise of app-based investing, the allure of rabbit holes, the sense of safety found in herds, free time, plus video game retailer Game Stop's vastly underappreciated sentimental value.

And did we mention the slushy state of securities markets? The Fed on Wednesday said it’ll hold rates at near zero even as many in the investing world are starting to shout "bubble!” in a crowded bouncy castle.

DOGE, at last check, at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning (EST), was $0.01224, up 56% in the past 24 hours.

As madcap as markets have been, what easily could, but should not, be overlooked is Bitcoin being on pace to finish the month of January with a double-digit gain. With only a few days until February, BTC is up 16% on the month, although the lead sled-dog of crypto has struck a slippery stretch of frozen tundra. Perhaps retail investors are bored with BTC or negatively influenced by bearish comments by Guggenheim’s CIO (nah, probably not) or busy chasing shares of video game retailers on a dare/whim.

One major alternative attraction is the DeFi sector where locked-in asset value is looking gaudy.

BTC, by contrast, seems beleaguered. As of Thursday at 8 a.m. (EST), BTC was roughly $31,500, flat on the morning but having decreased by 11.5% this week. At one point yesterday, BTC fell below $30K.

The most recent low (not to have been replaced by a yet another new low) came on Jan. 21 when BTC hit $28,845.

From a technical standpoint, BTC is said to be in a descending triangle pattern with lower highs and lower lows and a floor price deemed to be $29,000 which will be so until that caves in, which puts mid-$20,000s on the table (CoinDesk).

The Reddit-based trading community/chat room "r/Wallstreetbets," which helped bid up the price of GameStop (GME) and some other brink-teetering, heavily shorted (by Wall Street) stocks (such as AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry), has become a viral phenomenon. Now it has a new attention-grabbing thread: “regulatory bull's eye.”

NASDAQ CEO Adena Friedman said social media chatter is being watched and stock trading could be halted if “unusual" activity is spotted (CoinDesk).

TD Ameritrade restricted client trading for GameStop and AMC, saying by tweet it was “in the interest of mitigating risk for our company and clients.”

Wall Street has signaled it prefers stock markets to be sometimes extremely volatile, as opposed to, say, always super volatile (like crypto), even as the large fund managers of earth cheered on yet another centralized affirmation of the in-plain-sight easy-money plan in place for over a decade, propping up financial balance sheets with oceans, lakes, rivers, estuaries, creeks and gallon jugs of liquidity.

Regulators simultaneously will be focusing on both blockchain and Reddit; meanwhile, Reddit is focusing more on blockchain.

The social media platform plans to utilize Ethereum to create larger-scale applications similar to its user-reward program, “Community Points,” introduced last year (CryptoPotato).

GameStop, the video game retailer of choice among r/Wallstreetbets thread participants, has crossed over to crypto.

It debuted as a tokenized stock on FTX. The spot and futures crypto markets exchange has also added tokenized AMC and BB.