Showing the flag – Reddit co-founder includes #Bitcoin in Twitter status
Alexis Ohanian is the next prominent tech head to include Bitcoin in his Twitter status.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is now doing the same to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Tesla CEO Elon Musk by adding the hashtag #Bitcoin to his Twitter status.
Ohanian’s status update is a response to a previous tweet by former Coinbase technical director Balaji Srinivasan. The latter had pointed out, in light of developments surrounding the stock of video game retailer GameStop and Crypto Investor trading platform Robinhood, that Bitcoin (BTC) is increasingly becoming a “flag for the tech industry” as the market-leading cryptocurrency creates a distinct contrast to the established financial system with features such as independence, decentralisation and privacy.
Ok changing the bio…..#Bitcoin https://t.co/LOYYdRAfqY
– Alexis Ohanian Sr. 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣ (@alexisohanian) January 29, 2021
The Reddit co-founder is known as a crypto advocate and has previously disclosed that some of his personal wealth is invested in cryptocurrencies. In May 2020, Ohanian had predicted that cryptocurrencies “have come to stay”, which he attributed in part to the fact that there are many “highly talented minds” working in the industry.
Accordingly, he had also been optimistic in the past about the future price development of market leader Bitcoin and top altcoin Ether. Even then, he believed that the second-placed cryptocurrency would have the same price value as today.
As Cointelegraph reported, the social network Reddit, which has more than 1.7 billion users, has entered into a partnership with the Ethereum Foundation.
As part of this collaboration, Reddit plans to use blockchain technology for various purposes
Tesla CEO Elon Musk had also included Bitcoin in his Twitter status this Friday, which is believed to have been the catalyst for a surge in Bitcoin that has lifted the market leader’s share price back above US$38,000. However, it is probably not just the advocacy of Musk and his prominent colleagues that is behind this, but rather the way the established financial system deals with small private investors.
On Thursday, several trading platforms, most notably Robinhood, had suspended trading for certain securities. This primarily concerns the shares of GameStop (GME), which private investors had previously collectively pushed up. This price movement triggered a so-called short squeeze, which had serious consequences for some hedge funds.
On Friday, positions worth 850 million US dollars were again liquidated as a result of the Bitcoin price increase, whereby these were primarily short positions. According to data from bybt, the positions of more than 310,000 traders were liquidated.