By The move: GameStop stock jumped as much as 10% Friday morning to $28.97. The stock is down 8% year-to-date and is 76% below its record high reached during the meme-stock craze of 2021.
The chart:
Why: The video game retailer's stock jumped after CNBC reported that it is considering investing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies using its $4.6 billion cash pile.
The report comes a week after GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen posted a photo to X of him and Michael Saylor, the Chairman of Strategy (formerly Microstrategy).
That initial post sparked speculation among retail investors that GameStop would follow Strategy's lead and add bitcoin to its balance sheet.
Saylor, a vocal bitcoin evangelist, has pushed for more companies to buy the token. In December, he pitched Microsoft on the idea, though shareholders ultimately voted down a proposal for the tech giant to buy crypto.
What it means: GameStop is the original meme stock, and retail traders often pile in to pump the shares on even the smallest updates from the company.
The video game retailer has leaned into its fan base of individual investors since they threw a lifeline to the company a few years ago by pushing its stock price to extreme levels, allowing it to raise billions of dollars of cash.
This also wouldn't be the first time GameStop has dabbled in crypto. In 2022, the company launched a crypto wallet service but shut it down a year later.
If the company did end up adding crypto to its balance sheet, it would continue a broader trend of corporations holding digital assets.
According to data from Ark Invest, about 75 publicly traded companies hold bitcoin on their balance sheets, with a combined value of more than $55 billion.
The top corporate holders are Strategy and crypto miner Marathon Holdings, which hold about $46 billion and $4 billion worth of bitcoin, respectively.
GameStop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
