Memecoins, named after the video game retailer GameStop, whose stock has become a “meme,” have been rallying recently. Keith Gill, better known by his YouTube stream name Roaring Kitty, recently published some new content on social media, which sparked the expansion. It was revealed on Thursday that Gill has increased his stake in GameStop shares and options trading under the GME ticker to $586 million.
If the stock price of the company that Gill bet on goes up to $70, the trader will become a billionaire, according to experts at 10xResearch. The stock price of GameStop is $46.5 as of May 7th.
The GME memcoin, which is issued on the Solana blockchain, experienced a 140% growth in the last 24 hours in response to Gill’s publication. With a trading volume of $300 million in 24 hours, the token’s capitalization surpassed $180 million. Though unrelated, Memcoin uses the same stock ticker (GME) as GameStop.
Tokens based on the Roaring Kitty moniker or other “meme” company names like ROAR, KITTY, or AMC also saw multiple price increases following the trader’s announcement.
On May 13, a memecoin called Roaring Kitty saw a price increase of one hundred times following Gill’s return to social media after a three-year absence, garnering over eight million views in a matter of hours. The GameStop stock-themed GME token started to gain value on June 3, and the memecoin’s price increased by a whopping 200% following Gill’s initial disclosure of his position’s value. Launched on the Solana blockchain, Memecoins are one of many meme tokens that can only be traded on DEXs.
In 2021, Gill became famous after investors saw a string of videos he posted online and decided to purchase shares in GameStop. Consequently, GameStop’s stock gained notoriety and a meteoric rise in value from $20 to $483 in just two weeks in January of that year.