Reddit crazes, meme stocks, NFT arts trading and celebrities’ blank check companies have all made the headlines in what has been the craziest first quarter of Wall Street trading in recent memory!
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when Wall Street trading was left to the pros, retail traders were on the fringes and cryptocurrencies were deemed by many to be a fleeting craze that would definitely fade out.
Things started to change in 2020, as the pandemic led to more stay-at-home workers and furloughed staffers to get into retail trading.
Then came the first trading quarter of 2021, which saw a whirlwind of never-before-seen trading activity on Wall Street. GameStop and WallStreetBets on Reddit grabbed the headlines, but there has been plenty of meme stock and NFT madness on Wall Street over the past three months.
Meme Stocks – GameStop and More
The first quarter of trading in 2021 kicked-off with an absolute hurricane, as the Reddit thread WallStreetBets inspired the GameStop frenzy. What started off as an Amateur vs Professionals trading war soon sprawled out to become so much more – and it’s not over yet.
GameStop stocks are currently trading at around $189, having climbed in the penultimate week of March trading. Then there’s also Sundial Growing and AMC entertainment – two other Reddit-driven stocks that dominated the first quarter of trading for the retailers.
Three months ago, the terms ‘meme stocks’ and ‘Reddit stocks’, just weren’t a thing – now they’re appearing regularly in Wall Street Journal headlines!
Crypto + Art = Record Breaking Sale
Speaking of terms that have suddenly been thrust into the trading vocabulary – we have Non Fungible Tokens, or NFTs as they’re more commonly known.
In an online sale at Christie’s back in March, homegrown artist Beeple (real name Mike Winkelmann) simultaneously rocked the financial and art worlds when he sold a digital collage for $69.3 million. The sale has made Beeple the world’s third most expensive living artist, whose work has sold for more than anyone has ever paid for a Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí or Paul Gauguin piece.
The Art World Embraces NFTs – A Milestone for Crypto
What’s more telling for the future of the financial and arts world, is that it was the most expensive digital asset ever to be sold as an NFT. Having barely known what they were before Christmas, the art world has quite suddenly embraced NFTs with open arms. This has provided another watershed moment for crypto, which has made massive strides in its march into the heart of the financial mainstream over the past year.
What Does the Second Quarter of 2021 Hold?
The tide is definitely turning on Wall Street, meaning the second trading quarter of 2021 will likely bring more meme stocks, more mega-money NFT art sales and more amatuer trading frenzies.
Where does this leave the Wall Street veterans? While some of them had just come around to the notion of accepting that crypto is here to stay, they’ll now have to prepare for a whole lot more!
