Memecoin and stock influencer Keith Gill, better known by his online handle Roaring Kitty, appears to have sent GameStop, AMC stocks and a related memecoin surging after his latest cryptic post on X.
Gill’s posts have been cited as a driving factor for kicking off the GameStop short squeeze in January 2021, which saw traders flip the table on Wall Street short-sellers by buying GameStop’s stock and sending it to all-time highs of over $81.
In his latest Dec. 5 post to X, Gill posted an altered version of a 2006 Time magazine photo illustration paying homage to YouTube.
Source: Roaring Kitty
No other context was provided, but traders seemed to have reacted to Gill’s post. GameStop’s stock surged over 16% after the post, hitting $30.87 at its peak during the trading session, according to Google Finance.
Trading was temporarily halted due to volatility, according to Nasdaq Trader. GameStop shares have since fallen back to $28.60, down 6% in the last five days.
Meanwhile, an unofficial GameStop Solana-based memecoin GameStop (GME), which has no affiliation with the company, also saw a 72% rise to $0.007672 following Gill’s post. However, it has since retreated to $0.006488, according to CoinGecko.
AMC Entertainment, a movie theater chain, another stock that has previously benefitted from the attention of Gill, also spiked.
According to Google Finance, AMC surged 12% to a peak of $5.55 during the trading session. However, the stock is still far below its all-time high of $261, which it hit on June 18, 2021.
AMC Entertainment, a movie theater chain, was previously backed by Gill and has seen an uptick since he made his recent post. Source: Google Finance
Gill testified before Congress on Feb. 17, 2021, about his role in the GameStop stock saga and went dark on social media on June 19, 2021, the day after AMC stock surged to its all-time high.
Related: Roaring Kitty buys another 4M GME stocks, birthing conspiracy theory
After a three-year hiatus, Gill returned to social media in May. He made another cryptic X post in September, depicting Solana-based memecoin Chewy (CHWY), which resulted in a jump of nearly 28%, sending the coin to above $0.011.
On June 28, 2024, a GameStop investor sued Gill, alleging he used his influence on social media to orchestrate a pump-and-dump scheme, artificially inflating the price of GameStop shares while investors suffered losses.
The lawsuit was dropped three days later after the plaintiff filed a voluntary motion to dismiss. Former federal prosecutor Eric Rosen said in a June 30 analysis the suit was doomed from the start because lawyers for the plaintiff would struggle to legally prove that Gill had committed fraud.
When the first GameStop short squeeze occurred in 2021, the stock surged by over 1,000% in a month. As a result, traders and memecoin traders often closely monitor Gill’s social media activity.
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