GameStop (GME) shares rose 16% on Wednesday after the company announced it would start buying Bitcoin (BTC) to add to its balance sheet.
The gaming retailer reported holdings $4.8 billion in cash during its fourth quarter revenue on Tuesday. A few weeks ago CEO Ryan Cohen had an interest in purchasing Bitcoin on GME’s balance sheet. He is joined by Matt Cole, CEO of Strive Asset Management. This was the owner of GME via ETF and prompted the same.
GameStop on Tuesday reported that some of the cash would enter Bitcoin, and the US dollar controlled stubcoin in the future, but did not disclose how much money or timing of the purchase.
The plan has launched a speculative frenzy on social media: How much bitcoin will GameStop win?
According to Anthony Pompliano, founder and CEO of Professional Capital Management, the company’s allocation is likely to be important.
“Chairman Ryan Cohen is likely to place a big bet on Bitcoin as a balance sheet asset,” Pipriano wrote in a memo. “If you want to put material amounts of cash in Bitcoin, you just have to spend your time and energy turning it into an investment policy.”
Pump also pointed out that Cohen is currently following the three Bitcoin-related accounts for X.
According to Michael Saylor, whose poll (MSTR) spent $33 billion to acquire over 500,000 BTC on X, his followers believe GameStop needs to hold at least $3 billion worth of Bitcoin to “be respected by Bitcoiners.”
It’s not very clear whether GameStop is planning to buy Bitcoin as aggressively as its strategy. The company has deployed many creative financing mechanisms to fuel war boxes, including debt sales. But the strategy’s BTC SAGA began as a more humble $250 million cash reserve generated by cost reductions in the Covid era.
GameStop’s Share Boost not only says it’s just buying BTC, but also says it doesn’t own former bond trader Josh Mandell, which could prove resilient to Bitcoin’s price movements. He has caused a confused situation on social media.
“I don’t ask anyone to make sense,” he said.
