GameStop Buys 4,710 BTC for its Treasury

GameStop has made its biggest move yet into crypto. The company bought 4,710 bitcoins, investing $513 million as part of a shift toward digital assets. The purchase was funded through a recent $1.3 billion convertible bond sale, marking a new direction for the video game retailer.

Good to know

• GameStop used funds from a $1.3 billion bond sale to buy Bitcoin.
• The company had previously shut down its NFT marketplace in early 2024.
• Market reaction to the crypto investment has been mixed so far.

The board of directors approved a change to the company’s investment policy in March, allowing Bitcoin to be held on the balance sheet. That decision followed growing speculation about crypto pivot, especially after CEO Ryan Cohen was seen with MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor. A month earlier, we already reported on rumors that the gaming company was about to buy Bitcoin.

The move brings GameStop into the group of public companies holding Bitcoin as a reserve asset, joining names like Strategy, which has accumulated over 580,000 BTC.

After the announcement, GameStop’s stock initially jumped by 4.5% in pre-market trading. But by the end of the day, shares fell by over 10%. That echoed what happened earlier in March, when news of the bond sale and crypto plans first broke, sending the stock down 25%.

Past Efforts in Crypto and Web3

GameStop’s crypto history goes beyond Bitcoin. In 2022, the company launched an NFT marketplace on Immutable X, focused on gaming collectibles, and in fact it was pretty successful upon launch. That project ended in early 2024 due to what the company described as “regulatory uncertainty.”

Earlier, GameStop also worked with the Telos Foundation on blockchain gaming. It even explored issuing NFT-based dividends, proposing a model of one NFT per share to bridge traditional finance with digital assets. The idea never fully materialized but highlighted the company’s early push into Web3.