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GameStop, MicroStrategy shares jump on photo of Ryan Cohen and bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor

GameStop and MicroStrategy shares popped🦋 on Monday on speculation that the struggling video game retailer might embrace crypto.

The famed meme stock’s boss Ryan Cohen over the weekend with MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, whose firm is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin.

GameStop stock jumped 7% o🌌n Monday and MicroStrategy shares rose 2%.

Michael Saylor (left) and Ryan Cohen (right). X/Ryan Cohen

GameStop and MicroStrategy 🙈did not immediately respond to requests for 🗹comment.

The flailing video game retailer previously flirted with crypto projects. In 2023, GameStop ꦅfrom the market due to “regulato♊ry uncertainty.” 

The digital asset wallets allowed users to send, sto🔯re, receive and use cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens.

GameStop shares rose as much as 7.6% as social media users speculated the retailer might be working on a strategy involving bitcoin. Christopher Sadowski

Cohen, founder of online dog food seller Chewy, bought shares in GameStop in 2020 and joined the board in 2021 as it was swept up in the Reddit WallStreetBets meme stock frenzy – which sent its stock skyrocketജing more than 2,500% over the past five years.

Cohen aimed to turn around GameSt𝔍op’ꦍs brick-and-mortar business, but the retailer has continued to struggle.

Its stock has remained highly volatile, influenced by Roaring Kitty, the investor behind the ꦬ2020 GameStop trading mania.

Michael Saylor co-founded MicroStrategy, now renamed Strategy, in 1989 as a software and tech consulting firm. cryptoFX – stock.adobe.com

Saylor, who founded MicroStrategy in 1989 as a software and tech consulting firm, 🌟pocketed more than $350 million from stock sales last year. He renamed the company to Strategy last week.

The firm has raised billions of dollars over the past year through the sale ꦚof stock or converti🅷ble bonds in order to purchase more bitcoin.

The company🌺 holds about $47 billion worth of bitcoins on 🏅its balance sheet, or about 2.5% of the total supply.