Martin Shkreli is going all in on social media, finding an audience for his investing advice after being released from prison in May.
In the four years that the “Pharma Bro” was behind bars for securities fraud, a lot changed. A mob of retail traders sent meme stocks like GameStop Corp. soaring, non-fungible tokens of monkeys burst into the market and investors made and lost millions on crypto coins. These days, he’s dabbling in all of it.
Shkreli has an Instagram account under his name that links to other accounts on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Substack, Twitch, Discord and OnlyFans. He also has a Twitter account under the pseudonym Enrique Hernandez, which has 26,000 followers and which he’s used to hold Twitter Spaces to talk to his followers. The account, which regularly posts the same content as his Instagram, was recently suspended.
The content ranges from hot-takes on his investments strategies, to a “Date Martin Shkreli” sign up sheet and an auction of the watch he wore in prison.
Just as meme stocks fire up again on Wall Street, the former pharma executive and hedge fund manager has been hosting question-and-answer sessions on investments popular among Reddit retail traders, including AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
A representative for Shkreli declined to comment.
The former WallStreetBets moderator is also apparently getting a taste of the sometimes scammy culture around crypto, with a token associated with his new Web3 project tanking after a massive sale that he blamed on a hack. Shkreli is permanently barred from serving as a public company officer or director. But if he hopes to make a comeback in the business or investing world, social media is a questionable avenue, according to Davia Temin, who runs consulting company.
“I think he likes to be in the limelight,” she said. “But that doesn't fly for being a serious investor or business person.”
Reddit Traders
Prior to going to prison, Shkreli was a combative presence on social media, where he had a massive following. His erratic behavior, including during his 2017 trial, got him banned from Twitter after he harassed a female reporter online.
Lately, he’s been interacting with retail traders on Reddit and created his own server with 13,000 members on the popular forum Discord. He has also hosted hours-long livestreams on Twitch.