GameStop and Roaring Kitty-themed memecoins surge as Keith Gill apparently returns to Reddit

GameStop and Roaring Kitty-themed memecoins surged on Monday after the popular former financial analyst and trader Keith Gill appeared to return to Reddit for the first time in three years — disclosing his latest position in the stock, worth over $180 million.

GME, ROAR and KITTY gained 315%, 660% and 476%, respectively, following his Reddit post, per CoinGecko data, and are currently trading for $0.014, $0.015 and $0.0017.

GME is a Solana-based memecoin using the same ticker symbol as GameStop stock but has no official affiliation with the video game retailer. ROAR and KITTY are themed on the Roaring Kitty online persona of Gill, who was involved in the GameStop short squeeze three years ago, but again have no official connection to the investor.

GME/USD memecoin price chart. Image: CoinGecko.

GameStop stock itself is currently up over 80% in pre-market trading, though overnight trading of GME on Robinhood, also embroiled in the 2021 meme stock craze, is reportedly not working.

GME/USD pre-market trading. Image: TradingView.

Gill’s Reddit account “u/DeepFuckingValue” had been dormant since April 16, 2021, before the “GME YOLO update - June 2 2024” post. The update discloses $65.7 million worth of GameStop call options, plus $115.7 million worth of shares owned outright.

“By using call options in addition to owning shares outright, Roaring Kitty has leveraged his position to have a ridiculously large exposure (over 5%) of GME stock with much less capital than buying shares directly,” Jason Hitchcock, Head of Ecosystem at web3 development platform thirdweb, said.

Meme stock frenzy

While the Reddit username is the same, it's possible the account was sold or compromised somehow. The Roaring Kitty X account, itself reactivated for the first time in three years last month, also posted an Uno reverse card late Sunday, in a possible reference to running back the 2021 GME stock play.

What is different is that the update was posted in the r/Superstonk subreddit rather than r/WallStreetBets. “DFV posted in r/Superstonk and you should go over there and do ape stuff if you're into that,” contributor u/zjz posted in r/WallStreetBets. “Good luck RK, crazy f—ing position, but your whole schtick and disappearance really f—ed retail up and it'd be nice if you didn't leave them on a cliffhanger for the rest of the world to deprogram this time.”

However, the options position does seem to match data from Unusual Whales tracking a GME whale buying $20 calls expiring June 21 over the last seven days.

“All you Kitty glazers realize he just giga printed off you in early May and this entire thing is a setup to do it again this week,” trader Keyboard Monkey posted on X. “The fact people think he’s hurting hedge funds with this or sticking it to the man is the comical part. He bought this new batch just last week and is ready to ultra dump on these glazers.”

Gill and the subreddit /WallStreetBets featured heavily in the 2021 meme stock frenzy when shares of GameStop and AMC Entertainment, among others, surged more than 1,000% by the end of the year. Other struggling stocks like BlackBerry and Bed, Bath & Beyond also dealt with wild share price fluctuations throughout that year.

The GMCI Meme Index, which tracks the largest memecoins by market cap, was up 3.03% at 371.42 at publication time.