Reddit has lived up to the tagline of being the ‘front page of the internet’ since its 2005 inception. It is one of the most visited websites and popular social media networks globally. According to the Reddit Recap (which rounds up the most popular posts and topics for the year) for 2021, users mentioned ‘crypto’ an incredible 6.6 million times.
Therefore, the relationship between cryptocurrencies and Reddit is a no-brainer, as most blockchain projects will have their own dedicated subreddit. Reddit continues to be the hub for hardcore crypto trading enthusiasts, with hundreds of exciting communities on the platform.
Despite the massive variety, it can be tricky to find a decent forum if you’re not focused on an individual currency, market, or philosophy in cryptocurrencies. Therefore, after exploring how Reddit works, we’ll cover the five best trading groups on the platform.
How does Reddit work?
Reddit uses a bulletin board style of content aggregation relying on a combination of user-generated images, videos, texts, and links. You find these in what is known as ‘subreddits’ (every community’s name begins with r/) which are communities dedicated to a specific topic; users are aptly referred to as ‘redditors.’
For every subreddit, each submission is upvoted (rated positively) or downvoted (rated negatively) by the community’s redditors. As a post gets more upvotes, it ranks higher on that particular subreddit; with enough upvotes, these may even feature on Reddit’s front page (and on the subreddit r/popular).
After six months, posts will automatically be archived, meaning one can no longer comment or vote on them. An interesting feature of Reddit is ‘karma,’ essentially a score reflecting one’s reputation on the platform. It is earned primarily from upvotes on posts.
With enough karma, you can start your own subreddit or join a few exclusive communities. Another critical feature of Reddit is the moderators who ensure all the rules of a certain subreddit are followed. Interestingly, these are volunteers and not Reddit employees.
Tip: Most forums will have a link directing users to other related and unrelated subreddits detailing some interesting news pertaining to cryptocurrencies.
r/Cryptocurrency
If you only choose one crypto forum to be part of on Reddit, it would be this one. r/Cryptocurrency has the largest following on the site, with about 4.8 million members.
This community was established in March 2013, making it one of the oldest in its niche. r/Cryptocurrency is an all-encompassing group covering the latest news in the crypto and various discussions and analyses.
One distinct feature of this forum not found in others is the RCPs (Reddit Community Points) introduced in 2020. RCPs are similar to karma credits as they are rewarded on the engagement of commenters, posters, and moderators.
However, such points translate into earning the group’s cryptocurrency token named MOON, which is distributed monthly. These are also used to decide on a user’s weight when it comes to polls.
It is no surprise that r/Cryptocurrency is divided into several ‘flair’ tags dedicated to news, project updates, politics, polls, exchanges, speculation, etc.
r/CryptoCurrencies
Created in October 2013, we could consider r/CryptoCurrencies as the ‘lite’ version of r/Cryptocurrency. Like its predecessor, this forum is dedicated to all things crypto, with roughly 341 000 active users.
Moderators describe the community as ‘crypto Reddit’s Fiji water in a desert of censorship and agendas.’ It is highly regarded among enthusiasts as one of the best sources for unfiltered news, education, technicals, memes, and more.
By flair sections, r/CryptoCurrencies is more stripped-down as it’s divided by discussion, breaking news, market sentiment, fraud alert, crypto wallet, DeFi (decentralized finance), educational, and crypto exchanges.
r/SatoshiStreetBets
A little bit of entertainment with some usefulness certainly doesn’t hurt, and that’s what SatoshiStreetBets is about. This community refers to itself as the ‘crypto traders with diamond hands.’ Established in February 2020, the name of this subreddit was inspired by the popular WallStreetBets.
Some elements of this community are similar to its predecessor. For instance, it refers to its 570 000 members as ‘degens’ (there’s even a smaller ‘sister’ subreddit called r/SatoshiStreetDegens).
While SatoshiStreetBets excels at providing crypto-related memes, there’s more to this group. This forum comprises technical analysis, news, ‘big cap coin,’ and discussion sections.
r/CryptoMoonShots
This subreddit has around 1.7 million members, making it one of the most subscribed-to crypto forums on the website. It was created in December 2017 to discuss ‘low market cap digital currencies with a moonshot potential.’
Therefore, this subreddit is an excellent platform for early investors to consider untapped investment opportunities. Unlike our previously listed groups, this community doesn’t have many sub-divisions as it only focuses on a single topic.
Plus, there are pretty stringent rules on ensuring the submissions from users regarding what they believe to be the next moonshot are of the highest quality.
r/altcoin
Altcoins are the remaining existing cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. r/altcoin is understandably a subreddit dedicated to altcoins. Despite only having around 213 000 members, it was created in March 2013.
The relatively low subscriber amount is advantageous because the content is more focused with no over-saturation. r/altcoin is based on news, market performance, predictions, and trends of existing and recently-launched altcoins.
Curtain thoughts
So, what makes Reddit unique from the likes of Twitter and Facebook? Firstly, the platform prioritizes anonymity as users are only referred to by their usernames. This quality understandably aligns with the privacy element of cryptocurrencies.
Reddit has a strong moderation focus that is strict on the content published by users (especially the limitation of ads). Another advantage of the platform is being highly niche or specialized.
Of course, Reddit has certainly received considerable flak in recent years, but that’s the norm for most mainstream social media platforms. Ultimately, information reigns supreme. Hence, community-centric platforms like Reddit are a massive part of navigating the highly volatile and sometimes unpredictable world of cryptocurrencies.
