Reddit investors ‘adopt’ 3,500 gorillas in less than a week
WallStreetBets subreddit turns attention from GameStop to gorillas
Reddit investors are still monkeying around.
Users of the online forum’s WallStreetBets subreddit — who sent GameStop stock skyrocketing — have plunked down $350,000 to “adopt” 3,500 endangered mountain gorillas through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, Yahoo! Finance reported.
And they did it in just six days.
“Hi WallStreetBets, my name is Tara Stoinski, I’m the president and CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and I was just been made aware that you have been adopting gorilla’s through our website,” the fund’s director told the Reddit community in a thank you video.
“I just wanted to say thank you so much for this incredible support,” Stoinski said.
She said the group typically gets 20 new adoptions on a typical weekend.
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The great apes are the latest cause celebre for the subreddit’s citizen investors, who made headlines last month when their frenzied run on shares of struggling video game retailer GameStop sent the company’s stock soaring.
GameStop shares spiked more than 100 percent in a single day during Reddit run on its shares, before plunging back down to earth earlier this month.
The run on the gorillas began March 12 when one Reddit user posted he had adopted one of the endangered apes — a process by which a donation is made to the fund in the name of a specific gorilla to help in its upkeep.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GME | GAMESTOP CORP. | 11.90 | +0.69 | +6.16% |
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That sparked the run on the online adoptions.
WallStreetBets has used it’s buying power for good causes before, including a push to buy crayons for schools and chiken tenders for childrens’ hospitals.