As crypto policy increasingly divides political parties, U.S. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—better known as RFK—is now touting his love for meme stocks.In a Wednesday Twitter post, the independent candidate GameStop (I’m very aware of what the average retail investor has been saying about the need for greater transparency in our markets, stronger regulatory oversight and tougher penalties for market manipulation and criminal behavior. My administration will support the Ape retail rebellion… pic.twitter.com/pjDgeSUXcY— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 21, 2024“We need a free and fair market,” RFK tweeted. “Let’s punish predatory short-selling to the moon. By the way, I ride with you and I’m not leaving.”He added: “My administration will support the Ape retail rebellion and enact aggressive Wall Street reforms.”RFK was referring to the Wall Street firms that had initially shorted GameStop stock, betting that its price would go down. The 2021 trading frenzy aimed to stymie this strategy, and promote investing among ordinary citizens. Roaring Kitty—real name Keith Gill—urged people to invest. The craze eventually led to Wall Street chaos due to shares suddenly going up in value. Despite this, it has since been revealed that major Wall Street firms such as BlackRock and Vanguard held GameStop shares and may have raked in billions of dollars as a result. Such investments are now known as meme stocks—shares of companies made popular on Internet forums. Meme stocks later led to a surge in popularity in cryptocurrencies known as Both meme coins and stocks Crypto has becoming an increasingly pivotal issue in politics, with Trump stepping up his RFK is not a newcomer to the space, and aligned himself with the digital asset industry in the past. He previously Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
