GameStop joins the bitcoin reserve crowd. Who’s next?

Pandemic meme stock darling GameStop joined the rapidly growing bitcoin reserve crowd, announcing yesterday that its board had “unanimously approved an update to its investment policy to add Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset.” And with $4.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents, that could translate into a significant bitcoin stockpile: it could buy north of 50,000 bitcoin, which would place it near the top of all corporate hodlers. The stock is up 15% today as investors cheer the news.

Michael Saylor, CEO of Strategy, which has the largest stockpile with 506,137 bitcoin, was quick to welcome CEO Ryan Cohen to “Team Bitcoin.”

While the company’s sales declined about 39% to $1.283 billion this quarter from $1.794 billion in the prior year’s fourth quarter, its cash reserves jumped during the same time period. GameStop had $4.75 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of February 1, compared to $921.7 million on February 1, 2024.

Saylor’s Strategy also hinted at how much bitcoin GME might buy, posting that MARA Holdings — currently the second-largest bitcoin hodler with 46,374 bitcoin — could soon have “some competition.” That said, there’s no evidence Saylor has insider knowledge of GameStop’s bitcoin buying plan, previous reporting suggested the bitcoin bull wasn’t involved in the board’s discussions.

Why now? Well, beyond the fact that it can, the company doesn’t want to seem slow to act after Cohen teased the move last month by posting a picture with Saylor.

“Simply put, they don’t want to miss the boat,” Nic Puckrin, crypto analyst and founder of Coin Bureau, said. “The more companies take this step, the more emboldened others will be to follow suit, so we’ll likely see a bit of a snowball effect here in the coming months while the bull market still continues.”

Whether MARA will keep its second position remains to be seen, but it’s likely GameStop’s move could encourage more companies to add bitcoin to their reserves.

Puckrin said the next wave of adoption will come from businesses that have already expressed some level of openness to it. 

“This includes the likes of AMC Entertainment and Elon Musk’s X Corp., or perhaps fintechs like PayPal,” he said. “Other, more traditional businesses will take longer to convince, but eventually they will also feel the FOMO when competitors begin to outperform them.”