GameStop Surges Again, Plots NFT Platform

Short sellers still think they can win the long game against GameStop, but the meme stock is proving them wrong.

GameStop’s stock grew 35% from the start of the week to midday Wednesday, reaching its highest point since its last major rally in March.

Even though national attention has moved on, the video game seller has remained a hotbed of trader activity and corporate moves.

• Short sellers have not given up on the idea that the stock could still tank. 21% of the company’s publicly available shares are held in short sales. 
• But betting against the retailer isn’t working out: short sellers have lost $442 million on GameStop in May alone.
• The company is staffing up to build an Ethereum-based NFT platform. GameStop set up a website to recruit “engineers, designers, gamers, marketers, and community leaders” to its NFT team.

Activist investor Ryan Cohen has led a makeover of the executive team as the company pivots to e-commerce. The chief financial and customer officers have already left, and CEO George Sherman is set to leave on July 31.

Movie theater company AMC, another favorite of retail investors, has also surged since the start of the week, with its stock increasing as much as 58% midday Wednesday.