[manfredo]

Bitcoin, and decentralized currencies in general, are a novel thing. They absolutely do have utility, especially when it comes to circumventing government asset transfer controls. Plus, there's a fixed amount of bitcoin that will ever be available. And we're already close to that limit, 80-90% there.

Tesla is a pioneer in the electric vehicles industry. It's in a particularly good position to profit from decarbonization movements.

Gamestop is neither of these things. It's a brick and mortar store that was being made obsolete by digital distribution, and even more so from coronavirus.

Should pump and dumps be legal? That's just reading bits of paper based on people's views of how valuable they are. But nobody serious doubts that pump and dumps schemes are justifiably banned. Yes people should mostly be free to buy and trade as they see fit. But some people are willing to act in bad faith to exploit others.

Was Gamestop's meteoric rise a pump and dump? In part it was a short squeeze, but it also had all the hallmarks of a pump and dump. We keep saying that it was a bunch of internet people getting rich off hedge funds. But the people who were actually getting screwed were the ones who bought in at $100+ a share and lost over half their money. Nobody was ever under any illusion that the stock would remotely stay this high, and people were just hoping to get lucky and sell right before the crash. This isn't the kind of behavior someone wants in the stock market.