Roaring Kitty Returns to the Stage, $PEPE Hits All-Time High!
After a three-year hiatus, Keith Gill, the GameStop stock trader who gained fame for sparking the “retail investor versus Wall Street” battle, resurfaced on Twitter as his online persona, Roaring Kitty. His tweet set off a frenzy in the meme stock and meme coin markets.
Roaring Kitty, who had been dormant since June 2021, posted a picture on May 12th of a man holding a remote control and leaning forward. Twitter and Reddit users interpreted this tweet as Roaring Kitty entering the “lock-in” phase, which in internet slang means focusing or paying attention.
This tweet not only caused GameStop ($GME) stock to skyrocket by over 100%, but it also led to a surge in meme coin prices in the cryptocurrency market. Among them, $PEPE, a meme coin, stood out with a trading volume increase of 245% in the past 24 hours, reaching a staggering $1.56 billion. Its market value also rose to $4.31 billion, surpassing Ethereum Classic ($ETC), making it the 23rd largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
What makes Roaring Kitty so captivating? And why is he able to influence the world of meme coins in the cryptocurrency realm? This article will reveal the underlying reasons.
Further reading:
Meme Coin Party Begins! Is it the Season of “Altcoins”? Analysts Make Predictions Based on Two Major Signs
Roaring Kitty and the GameStop Saga
Roaring Kitty became a prominent figure in the meme stock frenzy of 2021. Through Reddit’s subforum “WallStreetBets,” he rallied thousands of retail investors to defy large hedge funds on Wall Street, resulting in a rapid surge of stocks like GameStop and AMC by over 1,000%. However, in June of the same year, after posting a video of a sleeping kitten, Roaring Kitty disappeared from the online world.
For those interested in this history, the movie “Dumb Money” is a fictionalized account of Roaring Kitty and the GameStop saga.
This year, Roaring Kitty made a comeback, driving the GameStop stock price to rise again, even triggering trading halts. It is worth mentioning that due to the lack of circuit breakers and price limits in the cryptocurrency market, this phenomenon sparked mockery among crypto players.
Furthermore, in the speculative atmosphere of the cryptocurrency market, many meme coins revolving around GameStop emerged, such as GME Stonks, GameOver, and KiethGillWifHat. However, these tokens mostly had a fleeting existence and quickly disappeared.
Why are meme coins in the cryptocurrency realm also benefiting?
In simple terms, the GameStop story exemplifies the power of memes. GameStop represents the story of small retail investors defeating big hedge funds, and this spirit of resistance is also reflected in the cryptocurrency market, becoming a symbol of meme coins standing up to Wall Street. GameStop’s valuation skyrocketed, exceeding rational estimations by ten or even a hundred times, and the only force behind it was “meme culture.”
Roaring Kitty and his supporters share many similarities with meme coin enthusiasts. They do not rely on “rational analysis,” “reasonable valuation,” or “value investing” like typical investors do. Instead, they are driven by “passion” and “belief,” which is why the term “dumb money” exists.
In the cryptocurrency world, these supporters are often referred to as “cults.” Cult members, once they have set their sights on a target, faithfully recruit others and are unlikely to sell their meme coins easily.
Most investors in this category hold dreams of getting rich through meme coins. Additionally, meme coins offer significant emotional value. For example, the rapidly rising Doge Hat coin ($WIF) at the end of last year led to holders and major players in the crypto community adorning their profile pictures with the iconic dog hat, symbolizing their membership in the Doge Hat community.
The cryptocurrency community believes that the reappearance of Roaring Kitty this year, along with the surge in GameStop and meme coins, coupled with the fact that the cryptocurrency market embodies meme spirit more than the stock market (due to the absence of trading halts), opens up new opportunities for meme coins.
In the market, many people believe that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” In the previous cryptocurrency bull market, Dogecoin ($DOGE) surged 100 times within three months after the GameStop frenzy, igniting a craze for meme coins. Therefore, it is natural for the cryptocurrency community to associate and connect the GameStop event with meme coins, believing that the same enthusiasm and power can be replicated in the cryptocurrency market.
References:
Cointelegraph, Decrypt, Coindesk, The Block
