Roaring Kitty Returns to the Scene, $PEPE Hits an All-Time High!
After a three-year hiatus, Keith Gill, the GameStop stock trader who gained fame for his involvement in the “retail vs. Wall Street” battle, has resurfaced on Twitter as his online persona Roaring Kitty. This has sparked a surge in meme stocks and meme coins.
Roaring Kitty, who had been inactive since June 2021, posted an image on May 12th of a man holding a remote control and leaning forward. Users on Twitter and Reddit interpreted this tweet as Roaring Kitty entering a “lock-in” phase, which is a slang term used to describe focused attention or concentration on the internet.
This tweet not only caused GameStop ($GME) stocks to skyrocket by over 100%, but also led to a surge in meme coin prices in the cryptocurrency market. One meme coin that stood out is $PEPE, which saw a staggering 245% increase in trading volume in the past 24 hours, reaching $1.56 billion. Its market value has also risen to $4.31 billion, surpassing Ethereum Classic ($ETC) and becoming the 23rd largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
What makes Roaring Kitty so captivating and able to influence the world of cryptocurrencies? This article will decrypt the underlying reasons.
Further Reading:
Meme Coin Party! Is it Time for “Altcoin” Season? Analysts Use Two Key Indicators to Judge
The Legendary Story of Roaring Kitty and GameStop
Roaring Kitty became a prominent figure in the meme stock frenzy of 2021. He rallied thousands of small retail investors against Wall Street’s hedge funds through posts on Reddit’s subgroup “WallStreetBets.” This led to a rapid surge of over 1,000% in the prices of stocks like GameStop and AMC. However, Roaring Kitty disappeared from the internet after posting a video of a sleeping cat in June of the same year.
If you’re interested in this piece of history, you can watch the movie “Dumb Money,” which is based on the true story of Roaring Kitty and GameStop.
This year, Roaring Kitty reappeared and once again drove up the price of GameStop stocks, even triggering a trading halt at one point. It’s worth noting that due to the lack of circuit breakers and price limits in the cryptocurrency market, this phenomenon has sparked amusement among crypto enthusiasts.
Furthermore, the speculative nature of the cryptocurrency market has given rise to many meme coins with GameStop as their theme, such as GME Stonks, GameOver, and KiethGillWifHat. However, most of these tokens quickly faded away.
Why are meme coins in the world of cryptocurrencies also benefiting?
In simple terms, the GameStop story is a classic example of the power of memes.
GameStop represents the story of the little guy triumphing over the big players, and this spirit of resistance is also reflected in the cryptocurrency market, becoming a symbol of meme coins fighting against Wall Street. GameStop’s valuation skyrocketed, exceeding rational estimates by tenfold or even a hundredfold, solely driven by the power of “meme culture.”
Roaring Kitty and his supporters share many similarities with meme coin enthusiasts. They rely less on “rational analysis,” “fair valuation,” and “value investment” like traditional investors, and instead are fueled by “passion” and “belief,” which is why the term “dumb money” exists.
In the cryptocurrency world, these groups of supporters are often referred to as “cults.” Cult members, once they’ve set their sights on a target, will faithfully recruit others and rarely sell their meme coins.
Most of these investors harbor dreams of getting rich through meme coins, and meme coins also provide significant emotional value. For example, the rapidly popularized Woofy Coin ($WIF) at the end of last year led to holders and major players in the crypto community adorning their avatars with the signature Woofy Coin hat, symbolizing their membership in the Woofy community.
The crypto community believes that Roaring Kitty’s return this year, along with the surge in GameStop and meme coin prices, coupled with the fact that the crypto market embodies meme spirit more than the stock market (as it lacks circuit breakers), has opened up new opportunities for meme coins.
In the market, many people believe that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” In the previous cryptocurrency bull market, Dogecoin ($DOGE) skyrocketed 100 times within three months after the GameStop frenzy, igniting a craze for meme coins. Therefore, it is natural for the crypto community to associate and connect the GameStop event with meme coins, believing that the same passion and power can be replicated in the crypto market.
References:
cointelegraph, decrypt, coindesk, theblock