A securities regulator for the U.S. state of Massachusetts is reportedly probing Keith Gill, the meme stock influencer better known online as Roaring Kitty or DeepFuckingValue.
Synonymous with the retail-led short squeeze that sent shares of GameStop soaring in 2021, Gill’s online return has reignited interest in the video game retailer. After posting to Twitter for the first time in years, the meme stock influencer has recently shifted his activity over to Reddit.
The existence of an investigation in Massachusetts was confirmed by Reuters after it was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The latter publication on Monday also detailed a separate review of GameStop options trading activity by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Secretary of the Commonwealth for the Massachusetts Securities Division did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
Though Gill’s reemergence began with curated clips of movies that didn’t mention GameStop directly, the influencer hasn’t been beating around the bush on Reddit. On Sunday, he posted a screenshot of an ETrade account holding $210 million in GameStop shares and call options.
A subsequent post on Monday showed the purported holdings had increased by millions of dollars.
GameStop Sinks After Wild Swing—Will Roaring Kitty Cash In?
GameStop shares fell slightly Tuesday as traders mulled new posts from Keith Gill, a meme stock influencer better known online as Roaring Kitty or DeepFuckingValue. As of this writing, GameStop shares traded nearly 4% lower on Tuesday at $27 even. The retreat followed a 30% drop on Monday after a Reddit post from Gill garnered widespread attention on Superstonk, a go-to community for people to discuss shares in the video game retailer. Reminiscent of the “GME YOLO update[s]” that Gill penned dur...
As of this writing, around 12,000 Reddit users were present in the r/Superstonk Reddit community where Gill had publicized his holdings. His most recent post on Reddit had garnered over 65,000 upvotes, many from GameStop fanatics.
Market manipulation concerns are among the main reasons why ETrade is currently considering dropping Gill from its retail trading platform, according to the Wall Street Journal. But on Twitter, some financial-market participants jumped to Gill’s defense.
Bobby Goodlatte, co-founder of the venture capital firm Form Capital, said that targeting Gill would be unfair. Though Gill’s actions feel like market manipulation, Goodlatte said Gill’s GameStop rhetoric isn’t far from Jim Cramer recommending a stock on CNBC’s “Mad Money.”
“The SEC should either allow all of it, or none of it,” he said, adding that the situation was also reminiscent of a hedge fund talking up the value of its investments on Twitter.
Roaring Kitty Faces ETrade Ban as GameStop Holdings Surge 48%: Report
Famed investor and meme stock celebrity Keith Gill, better known as Roaring Kitty, may be dropped from top retail stock trading platform ETrade, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the WSJ said Monday that ETrade, owned by investment giant Morgan Stanley, is “growing concerned about potential stock manipulation around his recent purchases of GameStop (GME) stock.” The exclusive report comes as Gill's long-dormant account on Reddit posted a screens...
Notably, Gill’s behavior has raised regulatory eyebrows in the Bay State before. He was registered as a broker with a subsidiary of MassMutual, and the insurer agreed to pay a $4 million fine in 2021 to settle an inquiry over supervising Gill’s trading and social-media activity.
After surging this weekend on the back of Gill’s Reddit post, GameStop shares slumped 5% Tuesday to $26.50, following a 30% drop on Monday. Still, GameStop’s stock price has risen 62% over the past month from $16.31 amid renewed interest from retail traders.
Cramer himself has waded into the conversation around Gill’s online posts, positing on Twitter that there’s “nothing illegal if [he] buy[s] calls and shows them.” In a followup he said that regulators are looking out for an eventual sale and that anyone “can get long and loud.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
