Loopring's Ethereum Token Surges on Rumors of GameStop NFT Alliance

By Andrew Hayward

We’ve already seen what happens when meme stock momentum propels GameStop’s share price, given the early-year short squeeze phenomenon. Now, we’re seeing how a potential association with GameStop can send an Ethereum token’s price soaring, as well.

Recently, GameStop stock enthusiasts have uncovered purported details suggesting that the retailer will tap Loopring’s Ethereum scaling technology for its upcoming NFT marketplace. Over the last week, as the rumors spread, Loopring’s Ethereum-based LRC token has skyrocketed in price.

LRC is up 206% over the last seven days, per data from CoinGecko, up to a current price of $1.31 per token. The price is down nearly 11% over the last 24 hours, but the recent jump has seen the coin rise from a recent low of about $0.38 per token in the past week. On Tuesday, Loopring tweeted that it had set a new daily record of $75 million worth of trading volume.

GameStop’s own stock price is up lately amid speculation over its NFT plans. At a current price of nearly $212 per share, GME is up 21% over the last five days. Earlier this year, GameStop’s stock hit a price of $483 per share amid the meme stock craze that also encompassed stocks like AMC and BlackBerry, aided in large part by retail traders using the Robinhood app.

Loopring is a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum, the primary blockchain network for NFT collectibles. It enables faster, cheaper transactions by handling them on a separate blockchain before rolling them all up and committing them to Ethereum’s mainnet. It’s also more energy-efficient than pushing all transactions directly to Ethereum.

GameStop first teased its plans for an Ethereum-based NFT marketplace back in May, and hired Matthew Finestone—formerly Loopring’s Head of Business—as its head of blockchain. Recently, the retailer has posted several job listings for positions related to NFT collectibles and Web3 gaming plans.

GMEdd, a resource for GameStop stock holders, reported last week that new code posted to Loopring’s GitHub repository makes multiple references to GameStop and NFTs. It also points to the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)—a peer-to-peer decentralized service that effectively backs up websites and files—which GameStop’s NFT teaser page previously referenced.

Neither GameStop nor Loopring immediately responded to Decrypt's requests for comment.

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