One of the top investing stories of 2021 was the short squeeze that took place with video game retailer GameStop Corporation GME. Retail investors took on hedge funds and short sellers in an epic David vs. Goliath battle.
Fast-forward to 2024, and a recently launched memecoin based on GameStop has experienced a surge in value, garnering increased interest.
What Happened: An unofficial memecoin based on GameStop was recently released to pay tribute to the anniversary of the short squeeze that happened with the video game retailer stock.
Trading with the same GME ticker, the GME Coin GME/USD is a Solana SOL/USD based memecoin.
"The $GMEStop memecoin pays homage to the GameStop saga anniversary, showing we can stand up to the big guys together," the coin's website reads.
The website said the coin is a movement, a display of community and shows the "power of the underdog."
"$GMEStop memecoin embodies the essence of that historic rebellion against financial titans, channeling the raw energy and incredible support that defined the GameStop mania."
The coin's website promises that its movement will be different than the GameStop short squeeze with "no halts, no restrictions, no market manipulation."
Along with the coin's launch coinciding with the anniversary of the short squeeze for GameStop stock which happened in January 2021, the launch came as a movie based on the events saw increased attention.
The movie "Dumb Money," was adapted from the book "The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees," written by Ben Mezrich.
Produced and distributed by Sony Group Corp SONY, the movie was released in theaters in September 2023. During its theatrical run, the movie grossed $13.9 million domestically and $20.7 million worldwide.
The movie recently was added to streaming platform Netflix Inc NFLX on Jan. 21, broadening its accessibility to a larger audience.
During its first week on Netflix, the movie was the eighth most watched English-language film with 6.1 million hours watched and 3.5 million viewers. The movie became a trending topic on social media, potentially setting the stage for the coin’s launch at an opportune time.
Related Link: GameStop Memecoin Up 330%: ‘$GME (The S–tcoin) Could Flip Actual Gamestop (The Stock),’ Crypto Researcher Says
Why It's Important: The launch of GME coin continues a recent trend of memecoins launching on Solana. Several of the memecoins have hit impressive hundred million dollar values, or in the case of BONK BONK/USD a $1 billion valuation.
GME Coin hit a market capitalization of $14 million in its first 24 hours. Today, the coin has a market capitalization of $56 million.
Volume for GME Coin is $57 million over the last 24 hours, which ranks as one of the top 100 coins by volume according to data from CoinMarketCap.
For comparison, GameStop the company has a market capitalization of $4.3 billion and has average trading volume of 6.1 million share (or around $87 million) in its last 100 days.
Some crypto analysts think GME Coin can keep rising in valuation and could someday pass GameStop the retailer. A market capitalization of $4.3 billion for the meme coin would rank the crypto as the 21st largest.
GME Price Action: The GME Coin trades at $0.007481 at the time of writing, versus an all-time high of $0.01196 hit recently.
Read Next: Here’s How Much $100 In Solana Today Will Be Worth If SOL Reaches New All-Time Highs
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