28-3-2025 – GameStop finds itself once again in the spotlight as short-selling activity has soared to levels unseen in nine months. On March 27, a staggering 30.85 million shares were targeted by short-sellers, marking a jaw-dropping 234% increase in a single day, as reported by TradingView. This frenzy has thrust the stock under a Short Sale Restriction (SSR) by the New York Stock Exchange, a mechanism triggered when a share price plummets more than 10% from the prior day’s close. Indeed, GameStop’s shares tumbled 22% that day, settling at $22.09, a far cry from the dizzying heights of its 2021 glory days.
The dramatic surge in short interest has inevitably conjured memories of the retailer’s infamous 2021 short squeeze, a moment when plucky retail investors turned the tables on hedge funds, forcing them to scramble and cover their positions at colossal losses. That historic peak saw 33.26 million shares shorted on January 19, 2021, a figure GameStop came perilously close to this week. With the SSR now in play—curtailing short sales for the remainder of the session and the following day—speculation is rife that the stage might be set for another explosive rally.
Adding fuel to the fire, GameStop recently unveiled plans to issue a $1.3 billion convertible note offering, with the proceeds earmarked for “general corporate purposes,” including a venture into Bitcoin purchases. Yet, the company has remained tight-lipped on the scale of its cryptocurrency ambitions, leaving investors and analysts alike scratching their heads. Financial experts have greeted the move with raised eyebrows. Tom Sosnoff of Tastylive, speaking to Yahoo Finance, likened it to the giddy, ill-fated exuberance of the dot-com era, while Bret Kenwell of eToro told Reuters that the Bitcoin gambit feels more like a fleeting publicity stunt than a robust strategy to bolster the firm’s faltering fundamentals.
The market’s scepticism is palpable, and GameStop’s shares have felt the sting, erasing a 12% uptick from the previous day when the Bitcoin news first broke. Some observers draw parallels to MicroStrategy’s bold 2021 play, when it raised $1.05 billion through convertible notes to snap up Bitcoin—a move that saw its stock dip initially before riding a subsequent crypto wave. On X, market analyst Han Akamatsu mused that GameStop might be tracing a similar path, hinting that a surge in either the stock or Bitcoin itself could spark a “very interesting” squeeze scenario.
Meanwhile, Kevin Malone, head of Malone Wealth, took to X to flag the extraordinary trading volume—50 times higher than the previous Thursday—suggesting that such figures defy logic without the murky hand of naked short selling at play. Whether this cocktail of towering short interest, restricted selling, and a pivot to cryptocurrency heralds another seismic rally or merely deeper volatility remains an open question. For now, GameStop stands at a crossroads, its next act eagerly awaited by a captivated market audience.
