GameStop’s Bitcoin Bet: The High-Stakes Treasury Play That Shook Wall Street
GameStop just flipped the script—again. This time, it's not about meme stocks or retail traders. It's about Bitcoin.
The company's audacious move into crypto reserves sparked chaos, hype, and a few Wall Street eye-rolls. Here's how it went down.
From Brick-and-Mortar to Blockchain
GameStop's pivot wasn't subtle. Ditching its dusty retail playbook, the company dumped millions into Bitcoin—right as institutional FOMO peaked. Cue the market frenzy.
The Backlash (And the Bag-Holders)
Analysts scoffed. 'A desperate hedge against irrelevance,' hissed one Bloomberg terminal jockey. Meanwhile, crypto bros crowned GameStop the 'corporate hodl king.' The stock? Volatile as ever.
What’s Next: Genius or Gamble?
With Bitcoin's price still swinging like a 2017 altcoin, GameStop’s treasury strategy looks either prescient or reckless. One thing’s certain—Wall Street’s watching. And probably shorting.
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Bonus jab: Nothing says 'financial innovation' like a dying mall retailer YOLO-ing into crypto. The 2020s, everybody.
GameStop’s board unanimously approved an update to its investment policy to add Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset on March 25, marking a strategic pivot that would transform the video game retailer into a hybrid retail-crypto company. This decision came after CEO Ryan Cohen posted a picture of himself with MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor at Mar-a-Lago in February – sparking widespread speculation about GameStop’s crypto ambitions.
Gamestop Major Fundraising Through Convertible Notes
The story begins with GameStop’s aggressive fundraising strategy. In March GameStop completed a $1.3 billion convertible notes offering, with the full $200 million greenshoe option exercised, bringing total proceeds to $1.5 billion. However, this was just the beginning.
This month, GameStop has announced an even larger $1.75 billion convertible notes offering, which was subsequently increased to $2.25 billion with an additional $450 million option. If fully exercised, this could bring total fundraising to $2.7 billion, significantly expanding beyond the initial figures mentioned in your story.
The Bitcoin Purchase & Market Reaction
GameStop has purchased 4,710 Bitcoin between May 3 and June 10, 2025, for approximately $513 million in cash. According to BitcoinTreasuries.net data, this makes GameStop the 13th largest corporate Bitcoin holder globally The announcement initially led to a 4.4% rise in GameStop’s shares during pre-market trading, but the stock experienced a 10.9% decline later that day reflecting investor uncertainty about the strategic direction. GameStop shares fell 22.5% on the day of the June convertible notes announcement. GameStop is part of a $50 billion institutional surge into Bitcoin as a treasury asset, following companies like MicroStrategy (now called Strategy) Wedbush Securities MD analyst Michael Pachter has expressed skepticism, stating “The company’s strategy, which has changed about six times in three years, is they’re going to buy cryptocurrency and be just like MicroStrategy.”
GameStop acknowledged the risks in its SEC filings, stating “Bitcoin, for example, is a highly volatile asset and has experienced significant price fluctuations over time. Our bitcoin strategy has not been tested and may prove unsuccessful”
