FTX Exchange Lists WallStreetBets Futures to Capitalize on Investing Movement

The futures contract is based on a basket of stocks being targeted by WallStreetBets and dogecoin.

Jan 29, 2021 at 12:21 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 11:03 a.m. UTC

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX has listed a WallStreetBets (WSB) index quarterly futures contract in a bid to capitalize on the retail trading fervor that exploded in recent days.

Announced Thursday via blog post, the basket of markets that make up the contract include stocks being targeted by the Reddit trading group – Nokia (NOK), BlackBerry (BB), AMC Entertainment (AMC), GameStop (GME), iShares Silver Trust (SLV) – as well as the dogecoin (DOGE) cryptocurrency and FTX's native token FTT.

The stocks and DOGE comprise 99% of the index, while FTT accounts for just 1%.

The listing comes at a time when demand for WSB-related stocks has skyrocketed in the last week, fueled by a social media trading frenzy that has targeted short-sellers and rocked the equities markets.

Apparently also caught up in the everyday trading trend is dogecoin, which soared Thursday to new record highs.

"WSB-related stocks have been our most requested products ever," FTX's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told CoinDesk via Telegram. "There's a ton of interest in trading WSB related stocks and [cryptos] right now ... the fact that many platforms are having trouble offering them is creating more demand."

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