Cartoon On X Spurs 68% Surge Of GameStop Shares

The surprise social media return of the trader who helped ignite the meme stock frenzy in 2021 sent GameStop shares skyrocketing.

Gamestop's stock surge had nothing to do with the troubled company’s fundamentals and everything to do with a cartoon of a gamer that the trader, nicknamed Roaring Kitty, shared on X. I Photo: Will Buckner Wikimedia Commons

The surge had nothing to do with the troubled company’s fundamentals and everything to do with a cartoon of a gamer that the trader, nicknamed Roaring Kitty, shared on X, Krystal Hur reported for CNN.

GameStop shares surged 68% on Monday after the account run by Keith Gill shared a meme on X, marking its first post in three years.

The shares skyrocketed by more than 110% earlier and were halted for volatility several times on Monday morning.

Shares of trading platform Robinhood, which suspended purchases of GameStop, AMC Entertainment, and other meme stocks during the frenzy in 2021, rose 7%. Shares of AMC popped 31%.

Reddit shares climbed 13%.

The image Gill posted depicts a man leaning forward in a chair with a video game console in hand. GameStop had posted the same cartoon in February, but with a red arrow and chair. In Gill’s cartoon, they are blue.

The meme is interpreted to convey, “when things get serious,” according to Know Your Meme. Gill, who goes by “Deepf—-ingvalue” on Reddit, was one of the leading forces on the WallStreetBets subreddit that drove eye-popping returns in GameStop’s stock.

The traders bid up shares of the retailer, targeting short-sellers who aim to turn profits on a stock by borrowing shares, selling them, and returning them after purchasing them at a lower price.