Solana Outage Can't Stop GameStop Tribute Meme Coin From Skyrocketing

A GameStop-inspired Solana meme coin launched in late January has followed the rollercoaster-like trajectory of the video game retailer’s own meme stock in recent years, surging last week before falling just as quickly. It’s back on the rise now—and even Tuesday’s Solana network outage couldn’t slow its roll.

GME, the unofficial GameStop-themed meme coin, has jumped 91% over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko, at a current price above $0.0096. The token briefly popped above $0.011, approaching its all-time high price point from last week, but has since settled.

The GME token is relatively small, with 24-hour trading volume of just over $14 million and a market cap of about $65 million. Compare that to over $1.8 billion in trading volume for Solana (SOL) during that same span and a market cap above $42 million.

Meme coins are famously volatile, and their prices fluctuate violently during their oft-brief time in the trading spotlight. But GME has persisted longer than many topical meme coins created to hang on a news event or a public figure, like Elon Musk or Charlie Munger.

Solana Went Down Again—It Likely Won't Be the Last Time

Solana just had another major outage—and that’s OK, the developers behind the network say. It’s likely going to happen again. That’s what happens when you’re building on the bleeding edge of tech, and at least one prominent builder on the network—Helius Labs co-founder and CEO Mert Mumtaz—says he’s prepared to take the heat that comes with it. “What we can't do is be afraid of progress for the sake of not being harassed on Twitter,” Mumtaz told Decrypt. Solana nearly made it a full year without...

And early Tuesday, even Solana’s nearly five-hour network outage didn’t impede GME’s latest pump. The coin was up substantially overnight and then briefly dipped after the network returned online before continuing its daily pump.

GameStop had made its own moves in the crypto world, including running an NFT marketplace from 2022 until just last week, when it was discontinued on February 2. The retailer also had its own crypto wallet, which was discontinued last fall.

 NFT Revolution

The Rise and Fall of GameStop's NFT Marketplace

GameStop has given up on NFTs. Less than three years after first hinting at its interest in NFTs, GameStop has ditched its NFT marketplace. As announced in January, the platform is no longer functional for buying and selling assets as of February 2, though it is still viewable online. The game retailer, which began as a U.S.-based brick-and-mortar operation back in 1984, has recently struggled to maintain a profitable business. GameStop was profitable for the first time in years in late 2022, bu...

But this Solana meme coin appears to have no official connection to the gaming brand, which did not reply to Decrypt’s request for comment last week.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.