GameStop shares rose in extended trading after reports that the retailer plans to create a marketplace for non-fungible tokens, or NFT
GameStop shares rose more than 22% in extended trading. The Wall Street Journal reported the retailer plans to create a marketplace for NFT. GameStop also plans to establish cryptocurrency partnerships to create games and items for the marketplace.
After skyrocketing more than 800% last January and then plunging as much as 70%, GameStop and other meme stocks have continued to draw massive fanfare from retail investors, despite bouts of intense volatility. “The retail force behind this movement is still strong, so it is anyone’s guess how much larger this can grow,” Oanda Senior Analyst Ed Moya wrote in a recent note. GameStop’s stock price is more than double the average one-year price target among analysts on Wall Street of $83.
Shares posted even bigger gains earlier in the session and closed at $140.62. The company’s share price hit an all-time high during the Reddit-driven frenzy last year. At the moment of writing is up more than 650% over the past year. But it’s been a rocky start to 2022 for meme stocks overall. Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. are down more than 15% in the first week of the year. Even with Friday’s gains, GameStop shares are down 5.2% for the week. The new division is the latest in a string of steps that company executives have taken to overhaul the retailer.
GameStop isn’t the only memestock to add crypto features to its business. AMC last year said that it would accept bitcoin at its movie theaters. AMC’s Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron wrote on Twitter that he has been “repeatedly asked when AMC expects to routinely accept Dogecoin and Shiba Inu for any and all payments made via the AMC” website and mobile app. He said that AMC is on track to implement the change in the first quarter of the year.
