Keith Gill, famously known as “Roaring Kitty,” the figurehead of the pandemic meme stock frenzy, returned to the social platform X after a three-year hiatus, causing a spike in certain stock prices.
On Sunday, Gill posted a meme commonly used by gamers to signal intensifying action, depicting a man leaning forward in his chair.
— Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) May 13, 2024
He followed this with a YouTube video from earlier years, remarking, “That’s all for now cuz I’m out of breath. FYI here’s a quick 4min video I put together to summarize the $GME bull case.”
This move by Gill propelled GameStop shares to surge by 40% in premarket trading. GameStop, a video game retailer, was struggling in 2021 as the industry shifted from physical discs to digital downloads.
Gill rose to fame in 2021 after his posts on the Reddit subforum Wallstreetbets sparked a monumental Wall Street showdown. Thousands of individual investors rallied against major hedge funds that were shorting GameStop’s stock, predicting the company’s downfall.
The grassroots campaign was temporarily successful, driving GameStop’s stock up over 1,000% in 2021, and similarly boosting other meme stocks. For instance, AMC, a beleaguered movie theatre chain, saw its shares soar by 2,300% in the same period.
At the start of trading on Monday, it seemed that Mr. Gill had reignited interest in GameStop as its shares doubled, marking the largest intraday rise since the meme stock frenzy of 2021. Other meme stocks, like theatre chain AMC, also experienced sharp increases in an extremely volatile market.
Trading in GameStop was halted several times today due to the volatility.
