GameStop Buying Bitcoin – What’s Going On?

It was so crazy, Hollywood even made a movie about it, Dumb Money. Well, GameStop is right back in the spotlight again.

Author

Adam Atlantic
February 14, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Remember in early 2021 how the entire investing world went bonkers over GameStop’s (GME) epic short squeeze? The squeeze that took its stock price from around $1 to $120?

It was so crazy, Hollywood even made a movie about it, Dumb Money.

Well, GameStop is right back in the spotlight again.

Not another short squeeze though.

GME, meet BTC

Word on the street (or rather, on Reddit and X.com) is that GameStop might follow the lead of companies like MicroStrategy, Semler Scientific, and as I highlighted yesterday, Metaplanet, by adding bitcoin to its balance sheet.

The thinking goes like this: GameStop’s been dabbling in NFTs and Web3 marketplaces, they’ve got a heap of cash in their accounts, and (this is the thing that really set social media alight) the CEO of GameStop, Ryan Cohen, posted a picture alongside MicroStrategy CEO, Michael Saylor… so maybe they want to go all-in on bitcoin now?

What’s funny though is that the picture Cohen posted was almost a week ago. But only now has the rumour mill fired up to the idea of GameStop buying bitcoin. This really got traction when CNBC started reporting on this possibility citing, “sources familiar with the matter.”[1] 

As you’d have it, this sent the GameStop stock price skyrocketing in after-market trading yesterday from $26.30 to $31.66 – just a quick-fire 20% off the back of a rumour.

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Even though it’s not a jaw-dropping surge like the meme-stock heydays of 2021 a 20% bump still hints that traders are sniffing around for reasons to push the stock, so what better way than off the back of bitcoin adoption?

Does this even matter?

As I wrote to you only yesterday, buying a “bitcoin stock” is worlds apart from just buying bitcoin outright. However, the returns that are possible can amplify your bitcoin holdings significantly (if your timing is spot on).

If GameStop does pick up a bag of Bitcoin (they have around $4 billion in cash) the immediate effect could be a rush for GME stock from the meme-stock trading communities and the crypto adoption traders. So 20% might only be the start of it…

It does still add to this feeling when I see these kinds of rumours and stories that the market top might be in.

However, a key differentiator this time around is we’re talking about companies with billions of dollars adding bitcoin to their balance sheets. They’re not changing a name to “Something something BLOCKCHAIN” to pump their stock price.

Adding bitcoin is a distinct long-term adoption strategy for this incredible digital asset.

Of course, there’s a reason not every company dives into crypto. Namely, they don’t need to. It’s why Apple, Amazon, Microsoft aren’t in any rush, they’re so cashed up there’s next to no point of them changing their treasury management (for now).

For smaller companies it’s tempting. But then, bitcoin is famously volatile. If bitcoin’s price plunges, that could torch GameStop’s balance sheet faster than you can say “diamond hands.” The same volatility that might catapult GameStop’s stock during a bull run can also send it careening downward in a bear phase.

Ultimately though, even if GameStop doesn’t adopt it now, I say they will in the not-too-distant future. And while it’s said Saylor and Cohen aren’t necessarily working on this together, you can’t tell me they didn’t at least float the idea when they met?

Trust in crypto,

Adam Atlantic