In reaction to the stock market crash, the London Stock Exchange has announced that the FTSE 100 will, from Monday, start trading memes alongside shares.
The move has been praised by analysts, citing the meme economy's exponential growth in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Memes are internet jokes, usually image based, which are popularised and spread via social media. Widely shared memes are referred to as having gone 'viral',
just like COVID-19.
The FTSE 100 will introduce memes to the index and allow traders to bid on their value based on metrics related to popularity e.g. likes, hearts, shares, which social platform(s) they are trending on, image-based memes vs. text-based memes etc.
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, welcomed the stimulus package saying that it was "a wise decision to introduce these heavily traded assets which will also encourage the youth to take an interest in the markets. I have some personal favourites which i can't wait to add to the index."
"It's moments like these that I got into finance for." said Gerald Forsquire, a trader. "This is going to be bigger than Bitcoin. Memes are the perfect compliment to stocks because they're actually real."
So-called meme-lords, who sit on giant caches of memes, are poised to become overnight billionaires and feted by the city.
As the world holds its breath for scientists to develop a cure or vaccine, the freshly-Brexited UK seeks to prove that it can turn pandemic jokes into profit.
Comments