The "retail stock god" who once defeated Wall Street returns, with the same-named meme coin skyrocketing a hundredfold in one day

Author: BlockBeats

This morning, a tweet went viral in both the U.S. stock trading and crypto communities, surpassing 6 million views in five hours. The tweet came from former U.S. stock trader Roaring Kitty, marking his first tweet in three years.

Although no one can clearly explain what the tweet represents, it hasn't stopped the entire trading community from being excited about the name Roaring Kitty, with many shouting on Twitter, "Roaring Kitty is back." Why does a single tweet have such a significant impact? Who is Roaring Kitty?

From a certain perspective, Roaring Kitty gave birth to the meme section of the crypto community, with the meme progenitor DOGE emerging from the "retail investors vs. Wall Street" myth that Roaring Kitty once led.

Keith Gill, known as "Roaring Kitty," was once a financial analyst. Roaring Kitty is the username he used on YouTube and Twitter, and he is also a loyal Reddit user.

In September 2019, Gill bought shares of the long-struggling American video game retailer GameStop (GME) and showcased his trading screenshot on the Reddit r/wallstreetbets subreddit—about a $53,000 long position. Since then, Gill frequently posted optimistic views on GME on Reddit.

In addition to text posts, he also published videos and live streams on YouTube discussing GME's fundamentals and potential. For a long time, many retail traders were influenced by him to buy GME, then went to his YouTube channel's comment section to support each other and maintain their confidence.

Roaring Kitty on his YouTube channel

By 2020, GME indeed experienced a surge, and Gill's assets grew several times. However, GME's upward trend caught the attention of Wall Street institutions, which were not optimistic about GME. In January 2021, Melvin Capital and the well-known short-selling firm Citron Research announced on Twitter that they were shorting GME, believing its price should be halved from the closing price.

This news sparked anger among many retail investors. That month, the Reddit retail social forum group Wall Street Bets launched a massive short squeeze campaign across major social media, pushing GME's stock price from $17 at the beginning of the month to a peak of $347, an increase of nearly 19 times. In this process, Roaring Kitty played a crucial role. He stated on Reddit that he would not sell even a single cent of GME and held a live stream on YouTube that lasted for 7 hours discussing GME's stock price.

It is worth mentioning that GME once plummeted nearly two-thirds due to a trading suspension by brokerages, causing Roaring Kitty's profits to retract over $15 million. Nevertheless, he remained steadfast and continued to post updates in the community, ultimately waiting for GME to rise again.

The $53,000 GME that Roaring Kitty purchased in 2019 turned into over $30 million more than a year later, peaking at $48 million. Roaring Kitty became famous, and Netflix produced the documentary "Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga" based on this event. The movie "Dumb Money," released last year, was also based on Roaring Kitty, telling the story of his journey from the first purchase of GameStop stock to the stock peak and the hedge fund collapse.

At that time, many retail investors were trading on Robinhood, which had suspended GME trading during this "battle of bulls and bears." The intense emotions of Robinhood investors spilled over to other assets, including the meaningless DOGE. Shortly after the GME incident, Elon Musk began tweeting extensively about Doge Memes, and DOGE peaked three months later, reaching a market cap of $90 billion. The MEME bull market in the crypto community began at that time.

Looking back, although Roaring Kitty never purchased cryptocurrencies, the counterculture he led and the role Robinhood played in the entire event as a "low-barrier trading" platform resonated perfectly with the culture of the crypto community.

Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist who gained fame on Wall Street for buying Bitcoin at $80, commented on Roaring Kitty's "achievements" at that time, stating that retail investors possessed levels of expertise comparable to Wall Street professionals. They had previously been unable to use more financial tools due to insufficient capital, which led to them being exploited by institutions. Now, retail investors united to strike back at institutions, indicating that the era of retail investors had arrived.

As the battle against Wall Street gradually came to an end, GME's price began to decline, and Roaring Kitty disappeared from the internet. His YouTube channel and Twitter were no longer updated, with the last post dating back to 2021.

After three years, Roaring Kitty tweeted again, and this "light of retail investors," a legendary figure with crypto culture, naturally excited the community. Prior to this, GME had already experienced a week of gains, and with Roaring Kitty's support, GME's weekly increase reached as high as 80%, the last time such an increase occurred was in 2022.

Roaring Kitty's influence on GME's stock price was not particularly significant; his comment section was filled with various meme coin promotions, with the luckiest being the meme KITTY, which was born on March 31. It plummeted over 90% the day after its launch, heading towards zero, but unexpectedly surged due to Roaring Kitty's return.

A month after hitting zero, KITTY saw a peak increase of over 100 times in nearly 7 hours. Some traders also enjoyed a stroke of luck; one trader spent about $3,000 to purchase 17.4 million KITTY the day before Roaring Kitty tweeted, and now he has made over $100,000 in profit from this tweet.