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How might the market react when a meme stock fuses with crypto? GameStop (GME) invited more volatility to its doorstep and provided an early answer.
After announcing the purchase of more than 4,700 bitcoins, the stock sank as the video game retailer-turned-YOLO ticker underwent a new transformation into a digital currency “hodler.”
There’s a reaction to the announcement, perhaps expected and even warranted, that this is the latest flailing attempt to turn a business in decline into something people will like better. Why not lean into GameStop’s own recent history as a meme stock and take it to its logical crypto conclusion?
After all, there’s a successful precedent on its side, with huge gains to boot: Michael Saylor’s bitcoin-holding company, Strategy (MSTR).
Shares of Strategy, which has dubbed itself the world’s first bitcoin treasury company, have more than doubled over the past year. Cocksure, unswerving, and devilishly simple at first glance, Strategy’s… strategy is to amass bitcoin and ride the appreciation to the moon.
When the price of bitcoin tumbles, investors have to brace for impact. But over a recent stretch of wins, the success of bolstering balance sheets with crypto has increasingly become a go-to corporate finance maneuver.
But instead of igniting a rally for GameStop, investors initially responded by looking for the exits. And with good reason: Strategy is a unique company with unique advantages, not a playbook.
The important differences between Strategy and its imitators start with Saylor himself, an old bitcoin hand, not a bandwagoner. Investors, so far, trust him to steer the ship through unpredictable, often turbulent currents. And by using clever financial engineering to sell new shares and debt while promising to keep buying and holding bitcoin, his backers envision a kind of “perpetual-motion money machine.”
Another key difference: This project was started back when it was hard to buy bitcoin without also taking on tricky custodial duties, dealing with “cold storage,” security concerns, and the perpetual worry of accidentally ending up with thousands trapped on a locked laptop if you’re not quite as good with computers as you thought you were.
It helps too that Strategy is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, reinforcing the accumulation engine, and that Saylor’s vocal advocacy for bitcoin bolsters a story of daring conviction, not unlike the retail speculation that fueled GameStop’s wild saga.
