Roaring Kitty’s Latest Move Isn’t GameStop Stock; It’s Chewy
- Keith Gill (aka Roaring Kitty) is now the third-largest shareholder in Chewy stocks after buying 9M shares valued at $245M+.
- The price of Chewy spiked by 17% after Keith Gill posted a cartoon dog on X.
- A Solana meme coin ($CHWY) created around the same time as the X post teaser' has risen by 110.77%
Keith Gill is back making headlines. But this time, it's not about his GameStop ($GME) investments.
Yesterday, the SEC revealed that the stock investor now owns a 6.6% stake in the pet food retailer Chewy.
He now holds 9M shares of Chewy worth over $245M, making him the company's third-largest shareholder.Following the announcement, Chewy's stock price surged by nearly 7% and has since dropped by nearly 4%. A copy-cat SOL coin called $CHWY also spiked by nearly 38%despite having no official connection to the online pet store.
Gill's weighty stake in the pet food company and the price movements of the mysterious $CHWY haveraised many questions. Let's explore the situation.
Gill's Latest Social Media TeasersGill's Chewy investment follows his recent return to the stock market after a three-year absence.
In June, he revealed on Reddit that he had bought $115.7M worth of $GME, and the price of $GME spiked by 106% at the same time.
The stock investor's social media posts about his financial interests seem to directly influence stock prices. His most recent one was an X post of a cartoon dog with a blue background (the same color as Chewy's logo) ahead of his stake in the online pet store.
- Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) June 27, 2024
Coinciding with Gill's X post, Chewy's shares spiked by around 17%, rising from $27 to $32 the same day. The stock's price now hovers around the $25 mark.
The $CHWY coin (created days after the investor's social media teaser' and featuring the same dog image) also made gains during the same time. It surged by 35%, implying a strong reaction to his financial activities.
This same image was also notably shown in one of the social media influencer's X videos (before the $GME funding). The aim was likely to test public reaction and build anticipation and interest surrounding Chewy to maximize profits.
- Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) May 15, 2024
Also potentially demonstrating the impact of Gill's social media and investor influence is the fact that several other pet stocks also increasedsince the SEC unveiled Gill's investment:
Legal Woes Over Gill's Social & Financial MovesStill, Gill's financial and social media actions do not come without consequences. His Chewy investment comes after a class-action lawsuit alleging he manipulated $GME market movements.
A GameStop investor called Radev filed the lawsuit on Friday, accusing Gill of engaging in a pump-and-dump' scheme between May 13 and June 13.
Though the court case has been dropped, questions and debates about the ethics of Gill's social media stance continue to be raised about his ability to steer stock prices to greater heights.
Many regulators and financial investors have suggested his social posts qualify as market manipulation. E-trade even considered booting Gill off its trading platform following his $GME funding.
E*Trade is considering removing Keith Gill Roaring Kitty" from its platform due to market manipulation.pic.twitter.com/8hWdwrdAzw https://t.co/77xTOyGwLk
- Financelot (@FinanceLancelot) June 3, 2024
To top this off, there has been chatter in the crypto community about whether institutional investors had optimized their trading bots according to certain words or phrases Keith Gill used during his live stream.
The cause of this chatter was unusual trading activities. When he mentioned ending the stream, for example, 4 minutes before the video finished, there was an uptick in the number of unrelated accounts suddenly posting and potentially manipulating traders to make money, raising bot activity concerns among social media users.
Retail investors are looking for every advantage they can possibly muster against algorithms making a killing on spreads, and using community-made trading bots like WienerAI is one such example.
Bots like WienerAI can combat institutional investors by helping traders make more efficient and profitable investments. It is MEV-protected to shield users from trading bots manipulating transactions. Additionally, it removes transaction costs through a zero-fee trading structure.
Wrap UpSocial media influence and trading bots can pose challenges through misleading trends and market manipulation, sometimes causing investors to experience setbacks.
This could potentially be the cause of both $GME's and Chewy's stocks slumping after rising following Gill's investments, which is why trading bots like WienerAI are becoming increasingly important.
Nonetheless, $CHWY continues to make moveswith a 17%+ uplift since its launch despite having no apparent involvement with the pet store or utility.This indicates the weight of social media trends and investor sentiment beyond Chewy's pet products.
The post Roaring Kitty's Latest Move Isn't GameStop Stock; It's Chewy appeared first on The Tech Report.