Jaime Rogozinski.
- The founder of Wall Streets Bets is launching a blockchain app and exchange-traded portfolios in an effort to empower retail investors to "fight back against corrupt institutions."
- "The amalgamation of blockchain technology with financial markets is the next logical step for finance," said Wall Street Bets founder Jaime Rogozinski.
- Retail investors would use a token to vote on issues related to the Wall Street Bets exchange-traded portfolios.
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The founder of Reddit's Wall Street Bets forum, Jaime Rogozinski, is planning to launch a blockchain app and exchange-traded portfolios in an effort toward "rooting out corruption" in the world of finance.
Rogozinski has been working on a decentralized application and collaborating with blockchain and financial technology experts to create exchange-traded portfolios, or ETPs, that will give retail investors exposure to a variety of assets, as well as a say in how the portfolios are run, according to a statement released on Wednesday.
"The amalgamation of blockchain technology with financial markets is the next logical step for finance — and not just for Wall Street but everywhere," said Rogozinski in a statement that calls him a strategic partner in the Wall Street Bets Decentralized Application, or DApp, project. "It will result in stronger, more democratized markets and will empower individuals around the world."
Blockchain-based finance would give retail investors the opportunity "to fight back against corrupt institutions and to end dependence on them altogether," the statement said.
The profile of the Wall Street Bets forum on Reddit was elevated this year after investors on the message board sparked a rally in shares of video game retailer GameStop that resulted in losses for short sellers.
The ETPs would be run under a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, that would allow community members to vote on issues related to the portfolios using a $WSB governance token. In a given example, token holders who believe electric vehicle maker Tesla should comprise 90% of a particular ETP instead of 10% can vote on it by signing a transaction using their $WSB tokens during voting cycles.
Wall Street Bets, formed in 2012 in the wake of the global financial crisis, calls itself a movement centered on empowering "little guy" investors against "unaccountable" financial institutions. Wall Street Bets ETPs are being pitched as an "alternative to the kind of market manipulation perpetuated by opaque and politically connected" banks and hedge funds.
"For WallStreetbets, the forthcoming release of our $WSB token is a shift in strategy," said BTCVIX, CEO of the Wall Street Bets DApp.
"We tried to fight back through protest after the global financial crash back in 2008-2009. We then tried to beat Wall Street insiders at their own game by short squeezing them to near bankruptcy. And now, with our soon-to-be-launched ETPs, we aim to simply exit the existing system for one that is fair and relies on community," said BTCVIX whose Twitter bio says "Banned from r/WSB for talking crypto in 2015."
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