The darlings of social media influenced retail investors — meme stocks plummeted on the worst trading day of 2025 in the U.S. stock market. Here’s how they have performed.
What Happened: Highly popularized by online communities, meme stocks are the shares of the companies that go viral on social media following a rapid adoption from retail investors communicating via virtual platforms. These stocks fell as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 index had the worst trading session of 2025 on Monday.
A few of many such meme stocks include;
- GameStop Corp. GME: Retail investors on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets created the 2021 GameStop “meme stock” phenomenon via a short squeeze, impacting hedge funds that had bet against it.
- Palantir Technologies Inc. PLTR: Reddit’s r/PLTR created the “Daddy Karp” meme which positioned it as a meme stock. The community posted a spoof video of Palantir CEO Alex Karp, featuring fake vocals and a $504 stock price claim.
- BlackBerry Ltd. BB The meme run in 2021 was driven by high short interest. However, the debentures acted as a backstop and the hedge funds earned on both the up and down legs.
- SoFi Technologies Inc. SOFI: This company became popular among the online communities after getting listed on bourses via SPAC route. Unlike other meme stocks, this company had better fundamentals for investors to bet on, however, the stock went abuzz on several updates.
- SoundHound AI Inc. SOUN: Nvidia Corp. NVDA’s investment sparked a price surge, leading to increased short selling and a subsequent meme stock short squeeze attempt in late 2024.
- Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN: It became a meme stock due to Amazon.com Inc. AMZN and Ford Motor Co. F backing, its IPO during the ongoing meme craze, and a rapid post-IPO surge that briefly exceeded $100 billion in market cap.
While these meme stocks famously held by the investors in online community defy short bets, all of them fell on the worst trading day of 2025.
| Company | YTD Performance | Monday’s Performance |
| Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR | 1.58% | -10.50% |
| BlackBerry Ltd BB | 9.69% | -7.30% |
| Gamestop Corporation GME | -26.88% | -6.58% |
| SoFi Technologies Inc SOFI | -20.88% | -11.20% |
| SoundHound AI Inc. SOUN | -57.49% | -12.01% |
| Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN | -17.28% | -1.88% |
Why It Matters: On Monday, the Nasdaq 100 plummeted 12.46% from its previous high of 22,222.61 to 19,430.95 points, whereas the S&P 500 index neared the correction zone, down 8.67% from its 52-week high of 6,147.43 to 5,614.56 points.
In the terms of meme stock communities, the aforementioned stocks didn’t go “to the moon,” and provide “tendies,” as most were down on a year-to-date basis. And the “apes” did not “hold the line” with their “diamond hands”.
While most meme stocks lack fundamentals and are highly volatile, they also suffer from stock dilutions from the companies that want to bank on their popularity. Thus, investors should be careful to invest without the assistance of a financial advisor.
Price Action: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, slumped on Friday. The SPY was down 2.66% to $560.58, and the QQQ also declined 3.88% to $472.73, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
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