Who Is Roaring Kitty and What Inspires The Meme Coin Drive?

The famous Roaring Kitty who drove up the stock prices of video game retailer, GameStop (GME) has returned to social media spaces igniting yet another rally in related stocks and meme coins. What was his rise to fame, early investments, the GameStop saga, and potential return?

Who Is Roaring Kitty?

Roaring Kitty, revealed as Keith Gill is a financial analyst who shared his methods of investing on X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Reddit. Gill was born in 1986 with a knack for sports in his early years. After graduation, he worked at a software company that provided a program for stock analysis before taking up a role at MassMutual. 

Between 2014 to 2020, Roaring Kitty as popularly called posed videos and live streams of his formula for tracking stocks for educational purposes only.

Keith Gill and GameStop

According to him, GameStop stocks were highly undervalued despite ridicule from several analysts. In 2019, he shared a $53,000 investment in the company and was mocked by some social users. Unfazed, he doubled down on the idea explaining why it was undervalued during the pandemic. 

Fortunes changed after low rates led to investors with more funds and lower consumer spending. Online trades soon geared up going bullish on end assets for several reasons including to spite larger hedge funds and to back the company. This spawns a whole community around Reddit and YouTube.

GME spiked to $347 per share on Jan 27 2021 from $4.56 on Jan 4 leading to a panic from hedge funds who previously took short positions. At the peak, GME hit $483 before making a sharp correction to $193. Trading platform Robinhood also announced certain restrictions on the asset as a result of the aftermath of the frenzy.

How Was He Unraveled? 

Known on social media spaces as Roaring Kitty, Reuters revealed him as Keith Gill after he named a short-lived company Roaring Kitty. Similarly, other agencies used other public records to unmask his identity. Following the crackdown on meme stocks, Gill testified in Congress in February 2021 restating his belief that GameStop stocks were undervalued. A class action lawsuit against him by investors alleging a violation of securities law was dismissed.

How Much Did Gill Make?

It’s quite unclear how much his exact profits stood at the time but in April 2021, he posted a spreadsheet of his GME stock which stood at $34 million.

Return and Impact on Meme Coins

After a long silence since 2021, Gill made a resurgence on May 12 2021 posting a person playing a video game followed by two other posts. This ignited users on his potential return leading to a frenzy in GME and meme coins. The price of GME moved up 75% as accumulation continued coupled with an increase in meme coins.

Several meme coins recorded double-digit inflows before the wider market correction due to macroeconomic factors. At press time, the meme coin market cap stands at $56.6 billion. 

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