I hope that the main takeaway from the events of the last few days is not that Elon Musk drives markets. To be sure, that's what happened. But it doesn't have to be Elon, or any other leader.
What I take away here is that groups have power. What I take away is that people put value into things because they care about them. The thing doesn't really matter.
GameStop is a particular case, but the lesson is the institutional response. Had another stock or another business been in a similar position and a determined number of people felt it was worth pursuing, we would see similar events play out.
DOGE is a particular case, and perhaps even more illustrative here. A critique of cryptocurrencies I've discussed in a few of my previous articles was their price volatility. An asset that could not be counted on to store its value was not a currency.
But haven't the DOGE Days been incredibly volatile and wildly unpredictable? Yes, but the lesson is not in the price, but in the lack of concern about the price. Valuation is what we make it. DOGE was worth it because people bought it. Have some of those new DOGE holders now lost value? Yes, but they haven't lost DOGE.
These are the sorts of issues we come up against when we start to think about cryptocurrencies. We are at a time where crypto into crossing boundaries into fiat currencies spaces, but cryptocurrencies do not behave "properly." They are made up of mathematics and not physical objects. We can't use them for everything. There is resistance from the current infrastructure and a concerted disinformation campaign.
But perhaps that has something to do with our thinking as well. Are we looking to improve the ways we transact, the ways we communicate? Are we seeking opportunities for cryptocurrencies to expand?
Information is easily distributed on the Internet, trivially so if you're Elon Musk. But we shouldn't need Elon to tell us what to do. Or centralized banks that want to protect their value. Or governments that want to control distribution of the world's resources.
I'm glad we're here so we can talk about this. We've got a lot of work ahead.
Photo by Evgeny Tchebotarev from Pexels
Yeah, I also noticed the hypocrisy and double standards applied between retail investors and institutional investors. If institutions influence the market, it is just ok for regulators but when retail investors work together, it is seen as market manipulation.