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A Reddit thread on a possibly interesting connection between BlackRock, Bitcoin's founder Satoshi Nakamoto, and the WallStreetBets forum has become popular in recent hours.
While the essay is highly speculative, it does use certain coincidences to raise a few salient questions that deserve more investigation.
Redditors Speculate on Mysterious Connection Between BlackRock, Bitcoin Founder Satoshi Nakamoto, and Reddit's WallStreetBets
Connect_Corner_5266, a self-proclaimed finance professional, first shared his popular article on the WallStreetBets forum. However, he admitted that the post was abruptly withdrawn. Following that, he reposted his viral article on Reddit's DeepFuckingValue thread, embellishing it with new information.
Connect_Corner_5266's original post on the WallStreetBets forum examined how certain major parts in BlackRock's and Bitcoin's histories overlapped. For example, about two decades before Satoshi Nakamoto released his famous Bitcoin whitepaper, BlackRock began constructing its own proprietary ledger system, dubbed Aladdin.
According to BlackRock's own disclosure, Aladdin is a cross-asset platform that unifies the whole investment management process using a standard data language. In 2013, the platform managed assets totaling more than $13 trillion. However, the smoking gun in this alleged interplay came in 2009, when BlackRock purchased Barclays' iShares division, propelling the investing titan to the top of the ETF sector in the years to follow.
Interestingly, Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin whitepaper was published in the same year. BlackRock now stands to earn billions of dollars in fees from its spot Bitcoin ETF, which is set to start as soon as this week. Connect_Corner_5266 speculates that, given the parallels, BlackRock may have played a part in Bitcoin's whitepaper.
Perhaps Satoshi Nakamoto is a BlackRock employee or partner. Regardless of the possibilities, these musings remain part of informed speculation. After all, there is no obvious causal relationship between BlackRock and the Bitcoin whitepaper.
Exploring the Alleged Symbiotic Relationship Between Reddit, WallStreetBets, and BlackRock
What is more clear is Connect_Corner_5266's claim of a symbiotic link between Reddit (particularly the WallStreetBets community) and BlackRock. In 2013, Fidelity Investments and BlackRock forged a "strategic alliance" for ETFs, as per WCCFTech.
Fidelity also served as the primary investor in Reddit's most recent investment round, which occurred in 2021. There is certainly enough of a connection here to support the symbiosis concept. After all, both of these investing titans wield power over Reddit through their ad placements.
According to Vice, BlackRock was the largest winner of the GameStop drama, which began in the WallStreetBets forum, due to its large stake in the meme stock. According to firsthand accounts, WallStreetBets is now reducing the number of posts critical of BlackRock. The apparent symbiotic relationship is a foregone conclusion for those who already wear a tinfoil hat. Even those who are more suspicious will want to look into these events further.
Photo: Brett Jordan/Unsplash
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