As Meme Stock Champion Roaring Kitty Returns, GameStop and AMC Rise

The triumphal return of Keith Gill, the guy responsible for starting the meme stock craze during the epidemic, sent shares of GameStop and AMC soaring on Monday. Following a three-year sabbatical, Gill — better known by her stage name, Roaring Kitty — resurfaced on social media, sending shockwaves across the market and forcing the New York Stock Exchange to repeatedly halt trading on GameStop due to high volatility.

Gill last posted something on the platform X on Sunday night, a meme implying he’s “getting serious.” This was his first post since June 2021. Retail investors were ecstatic about his comeback, and they celebrated by posting happy messages on social media about “he’s back,” “game on,” and “just in time for the memecoin supercycle,” which alludes to the recent spike in lesser cryptocurrencies.

GameStop’s stock shot up 74.5% on Monday in reaction to Gill’s post, with many trade pauses during the first hour. GameStop closed at 17.46 on Friday, largely unchanged for the year before this rise.

AMC Entertainment, which saw a 53% loss in 2024 but rallied 78.4%, was also riding high, staying close to its April record low of 2.38.

Gill was a key player in the 2020 and 2021 GameStop short squeeze, which is when his power first emerged. He was called to appear before the House Financial Services Committee in February 2021 as a former financial analyst and broker as part of an inquiry into possible market manipulation. His activities sparked a wave of retail investors who orchestrated an extraordinary purchasing frenzy of GameStop shares, taking short sellers by surprise and resulting in record-breaking stock gains.

In 2021, GameStop’s stock experienced a remarkable surge of 688%, primarily due to the joint endeavors of individual investors on online forums. Due to the buying frenzy, short sellers who had placed bets on the stock’s decline were put in a risky situation where they may lose all of their money unless they purchased the stock, which would have increased its price.

This situation produced an ideal environment for a short squeeze because it was fueled by the stock’s previous slump and investors’ expectation of additional drops. A sizeable number of GameStop’s shares were held by investors who were betting against the company by late 2019, which helped pave the way for the spectacular surge that began in early 2021.

Gill’s comeback has rekindled the buzz around meme stocks, indicating that more market drama is ahead as regular investors get behind their mysterious leader once more.