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Reddit called users like its WallStreetBets community 'catalysts for real-world change' this year

While Reddit hosts more than 430 million monthly active users in over 100,000 communities who discuss everything under the sun, there was one financial subject that cut through the online chatter this year: Cryptocurrency.

The massive social network dropped its Reddit Recap 2021 this week, which rounds up the most popular posts, topics and conversations on its platform over the past year. And cryptocurrency was hands down the most popular topic on Reddit in 2021, with people mentioning "crypto" 6.6 million times. There are also more than 500 cryptocurrency communities on Reddit, and the five most popular ones this year were r/dogecoin, r/superstonk, r/cryptocurrency, r/amcstock, and r/bitcoin.

The Most Viewed Topics of 2021 on Reddit

Cryptocurrencies including Dogecoin , Ethereum and Shiba Inu also topped Google's 2021 Year in Search, which the Alphabet-owned $(GOOGL)$ search engine released this week. "Dogecoin" and "Ethereum price" landed in the top 10 most-Googled news stories of the past year, both in the U.S. and across the globe. And the top two "Where to buy" Google searches were "Where to buy Dogecoin?" and "Where to buy Shiba coin?"

Read more:Google's 2021 Year in Search: AMC and GME stocks, Dogecoin, stimulus checks and shortages dominated queries

Whats's more, a recent Rover.com survey found that pet owners are actually naming their dogs "Doge" and their cats "Bitcoin."

And a group of crypto investors named ConstitutionDAO tried making history last month by crowdfunding more than $40 million to bid on a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution. Alas, it lost out to Citadel founder Ken Griffin, who spent $43.2 million on the historic document.

Reddit notes that the rise of these retail and crypto investors looking to game the system has had real-world impact, such as the GameStop $(GME)$ short squeeze in January. Maybe. The year-end Reddit report credits redditors with being "catalysts for real-world change" over the past year.

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"From r/wallstreetbets and the crash of the One Simple Wish website, to the Battle of the Joshes, in 2021, the most notable moments on Reddit were when redditors took their comments, comradery, conversations, and more from URL to IRL," Reddit staff wrote in a blog post

Reddit's year-end review notes that users created 366 million posts over the past year, which was a 19% increase year over year. And as of Nov. 9, 2021, Reddit drew more than 2.3 billion total comments and 46 billion upvotes; aka when users show their approval for a post by clicking an "up" arrow, which pushes the post toward the top of the site so that more people can see it.

The three most upvoted Reddit posts of the year came from the retail investors on the WallStreetBets, and the Superstonk page (which describes itself as discussing GameStop stock specifically) saw a 917K% increase in subscribers year over year.

Those eager to learn more about the sometimes volatile world of meme stocks can check out MarketWatch's MemeMoney column and weekly MemeMarkets videos on YouTube. Or stay up-to-speed with cryptocurrency market news here.

And amid the Great Resignation, the r/antiwork subreddit has exploded. The number of "idlers" (aka members) in this community for "those who want to end work, are curious about ending work, want to get the most out of a work-free life, want more information on antiwork ideas and want personal help with their own jobs/work-related struggles" spiked 279% this year.

This video highlights the "oddities and commodities" discussed on Reddit this year, such as meme stocks like AMC $(AMC)$ and GameStop, supply chain issues, the billionaire space race and the breakout Netflix $(NFLX)$ hit "Squid Game."

Check out the full Reddit recap here

-Nicole Lyn Pesce