GameStop shares fell sharply by 40% in trading on Friday, coinciding with the return of Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty, to livestreaming. The drop occurred after GameStop released its first quarter earnings report and announced a 75 million share offering. The share price plummeted by 25% in the morning and continued to decline during Gill's livestream, where he discussed his optimistic view on the company's future.
Roaring Kitty, who gained notoriety for his role in the 2021 meme stock phenomenon, had been absent from social media for three years before resurfacing last month. His return sparked a fresh wave of speculative interest in GameStop, which also affected the memecoin market. Solana-based meme token GME saw its price nearly double before dropping 50% on Friday, though it remained significantly higher for the week.
In a Reddit post on Thursday, Gill revealed that his stock and options position in GameStop was valued at $586 million at the time.
Simultaneously, a group of GameStop-inspired memecoins experienced a downturn. During Gill's livestream, which attracted over 600,000 viewers, memecoins GME, KITTY, and ROAR saw declines of up to 31% from their prices just before the event. Despite overnight surges, by the end of the livestream, GME and ROAR had dropped about 24% and 31%, respectively, while KITTY fell by approximately 17%.
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Marty Bent
