Meme Markets: Investing vs. Entertainment
1st September 2025
Financial markets have transformed; today, trading and speculation have merged into performance art. The “Meme Market” culture now permeates mainstream finance. There was once a time when CEOs reigned as icons leading powerful companies, but today, some executives who once managed companies now lead cults.
For example, Palantir, driven by “Palantarians,” rallied more than 100% this year. Its fans call CEO Alex Karp “Daddy?Karp.” Simultaneously, they ignore fundamentals, such as a 520x P/E ratio, a 12.9 PEG ratio, and a 108x price-to-sales. Yes, the company can certainly grow into some of that overvaluation, but most likely not all of it..
Another group remains unyielding to Michael Saylor, who heads up the one flailing company of MicroStrategy, which has been rebranded to just “Strategy,” to signify its new course of converting the company into a leveraged play on bitcoin. He regularly encourages his base with memes to further promote his leverage strategy. His followers congregate on Reddit and X under tags like “Irresponsibly?Long?$MSTR,” which tells you these investors have also disregarded fundamentals, like a 210x price-to-sales ratio, in favor of a “story.”
These are not investment conversations; they are fandom rituals.