GME, an unofficial Solana memecoin parody of American gaming retailer GameStop, has surpassed $100 million in market capitalization amid a trading frenzy of its namesake (but unrelated) entity.
As of May 14, the GME memecoin has returned 2,291% within the past week and trades at $0.01449 at the time of publication. The move was largely fueled by investor interest in shares of GameStop Corp, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which havd surged 228% in the past five trading days.
In addition, the GME memecoin’s listing on centralized exchanges such as Bitget and BingX appears to have propelled buying activity.
It appears that the sudden, unexpected return of Keith Gill — the trader widely credited with kicking off the 2021 Reddit-infused GameStop short squeeze — has led to yet another short squeeze of GameStop shares among enthusiastic investors. In the 24 hours following Gill’s return to X, shares of GameStop rallied as much as 111% in price.
It’s not just average day-to-day traders who are benefitting from the market euphoria.
Ryan Cohen — GameStop’s CEO, chairman and largest individual shareholder with a 12% stake — reportedly holds $1 billion of unrealized capital gains that arose from the ongoing short squeeze.
The memecoin hysteria has gripped much of the crypto industry this year.
On May 13, the unofficial Pepe the Frog memecoin Pepe (PEPE), minted on Ethereum, rallied over 34% in a single day to set a new record high of $0.00001119 on Binance.
On March 22, the price of Solana memecoin Dogwifhat (WIF) hit a record high following its $700,000 Vegas Sphere fundraiser. Immediately following the campaign’s conclusion, WIF’s price spiked 25%, briefly pushing the token to $3 and a total market capitalization of $3 billion.
On April 3, a trader reportedly turned $13,000 into $2 million within several hours by purchasing Bitget Wallet’s Donotfomoew (MOEW) memecoin, deployed on the Base blockchain, shortly after its launch and selling their positions after MOEW picked up traction.
The apparent recklessness of investors gambling on memecoins has attracted warnings from experts.
In a statement on April 24, prominent decentralized finance sleuth ZachXBT wrote that 12 Solana memecoins allegedly raised a combined $26.7 million from investors and then abruptly abandoned the projects. According to ZachXBT, the most costly “abandoned” presale project was a memecoin dubbed “I like this coin,” which sported the ticker LIKE.
Related: Memecoins rally as Bitcoin recovers to all-time high