GameStop’s $450M Crypto Gambit Fizzles—Is Bitcoin the Fallback Plan?

GameStop just played a $450 million hand—and the market folded. The retail darling's latest capital raise landed with a thud, failing to ignite trader enthusiasm despite whispers of a Bitcoin pivot.

Wall Street shrugs while crypto circles buzz. Another case of legacy finance moving too slow for the digital age? The memestock-turned-crypto-curious company now faces its make-or-break moment.

One thing's certain: in today's market, if you're not stacking sats, you're just stacking paperwork. GameStop's move reeks of corporate desperation—the kind that usually precedes either genius or catastrophe.

GameStop’s Bitcoin moves miss out on stock surges

In the Monday trading session after its filing, Google Finance data shows GameStop shares (GME) dropped from an opening price of $23.03 down to a low of $22.45, representing a 2.5% drop.

The stock price has recovered slightly and is up over 1.8% in the last five days, trading at $23.55 after the closing bell on Wednesday; however, it has also dropped 0.38% in after-hours trading. 

GameStop shares are up 1.8% over the five days but have also dropped slightly in after-hours trading. Source: Google Finance 

The share price movements resemble those from May, when GameStop stock also failed to rise despite the retailer announcing it was buying half a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin. GameStop shares instead dipped around 11%. 

Meanwhile, other companies, such as Japanese investment firm Metaplanet, saw share prices spike up to 22% after announcing Bitcoin buy plans.

Indonesian fintech firm DigiAsia Corp stock also saw a spike of 91% and Paris-based crypto company Blockchain Group saw its stock surge 225% after a Bitcoin purchase in March.

Bitcoin treasury plans aren’t enough 

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Vincent Liu, the chief investment officer at Kronos Research, said that while companies are adopting Bitcoin to diversify treasury risk and tap into new liquidity amid bloated national USD debt levels, buying Bitcoin isn’t enough. 

A Bitcoin treasury rollout requires “a well-planned strategy to protect capital and strengthen liquidity,” because without “clear execution and long-term vision, it’s unlikely to deliver sustained value,” Liu said. 

It’s not just buying Bitcoin. It’s how and why. Clear strategy and strong execution build trust and attract liquidity, but if it’s just HYPE or a ‘sell the news’ event like GameStop, the impact will be muted.

GameStop’s other crypto ventures

GameStop previously made forays into the crypto space with a crypto wallet for its users, which it eventually shut down in November 2023 due to regulatory uncertainty.

It launched an NFT marketplace, which was also eventually shuttered in January 2024, due to similar concerns about regulatory uncertainty.

GameStop is also considered the first example of meme stock success after a short squeeze in 2021 sent the stock surging over 1,000% in a month as traders flipped the table on hedge funds that had been making money shorting on the company.