GameStop soars on building NFT trading hub, crypto partnerships

Wisekey International Holding AG

07/01/2022 13:10

By Medha Singh and Shashank Nayar
    Jan 7 (Reuters) - GameStop Corp's  GME.N  plans to expand
its non-fungible tokens (NFTs) marketplace and partner with
crypto firms boosted the video game retailer's shares by 17.5%
in premarket trading and also lifted other meme stocks.
    GameStop shares have been languishing for a while, like
several other meme stocks, as interest from retail investors
dwindled. The lot, which coordinated on online forums such as
Reddit to talk up the shares and hurt bearish hedge funds, was
responsible for massive gains in the stocks in early 2021.
    GameStop is building an online hub for trading NFTs for
virtual game collectibles and is close to signing partnerships
with two crypto companies to help develop games on blockchain
and NFT technology, according to a media report.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2TM3BM
    NFTs, which use blockchain to record the ownership of
digital items such as images or videos, surged in popularity in
2021, leaving many baffled why so much money was being spent on
items that do not physically exist.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2LE3VG
    Other stocks favored by small-time investors - Koss Corp
 KOSS.O  and Bed Bath & Beyond  BBBY.O  - rose 4.5% and 2.2%,
respectively, while AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc  AMC.N 
advanced 5%.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2QI291
    The highly volatile crypto assets have cratered in recent
months, with bitcoin  BTC=BTSP  plummeting to a more than
three-month low of $42,218.84, down 38% from its $69,000
all-time high in November.
    Ether  ETH=BTSP , used to buy NFTs, has slumped to
$3,225.79, levels last seen in early October.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2TN18G
    "Meme stocks are speculative rather than fundamental and, to
a degree, cryptos are also little speculative in nature... too
much of an exposure to cryptos could have an effect on the
balance sheets of these companies," Mirabaud analyst Neil
Campling said.
    Another gainer on the NFT news was Switzerland's
cybersecurity firm Wisekey International Holding  WKEY.O  that
rose 6.8% after announcing plans to launch an NFT from space on
Jan. 13.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2TN2BT 

 (Reporting by Medha Singh and Shashank Nayar in Bengaluru;
Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
 ((Medha.Singh@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1646 223 8780,
outside U.S. +91 80 6182 2802; Twitter: https://twitter.com/medhasinghs;))