In recent days, news that GameStop would enter the NTF arena gained traction among apes and Reddit traders. Wall Street Memes discusses why this could be good news for the stock.

GameStop  (GME) - Get Report shares have been heading lower week after week since June 9. But the meme mania pioneer remains one of the most debated stocks among Redditors. Last week, on July 14, news of GameStop's NFT release bumped the stock’s popularity on WallStreetBets. See below.

Latest news

Recently, news has surfaced that a GameStop NFT (non-fungible token) project was underway. Some investors and traders saw the development as a potential catalyst for the stock.

NFT is a single asset usually embedded in an object (like a video game skin, for example) and registered in a blockchain network. It is an encrypted digital record of a piece of art that can be bought, sold, and collected.

The news gained relevance after GameStop launched a website about NFT in the past few weeks. However, not much more information has been shared by the company so far.

Why NFT is relevant

NFT is a form of CryptoArt. The art pieces can take the form of a logo, a phrase, a song, and are published directly into the blockchain.

Although the CryptoArt market has been around for a while, it has gained more attention in 2021. The chart below shows that the CryptoArt market is already valued at $594 million, as more than 800,000 artwork pieces have been sold so far.

Below are some fun facts about CryptoArt:

1. the co-creator of the famous cartoon Ricky and Morty auctioned off a hand-drawn black and white piece of CryptoArt for $150,000;
2. the most expensive CryptoArt on record was sold for $69 million: Everydays, by artist Beeple;
3. viral video “Charlie bit my finger” was turned into an NFT and sold for over $760,000 in June;
4. the CEO of Twitter sold his first tweet artwork for $2.9 million.

Can GME benefit from NFTs?

GameStop has not yet offered details about the launch of its NFT or its strategy around it. It is safe to say that the company would benefit from diversifying its business model, expanding further beyond gaming and the brick-and-mortar channel – and that it is probably looking to do so with digital art.

The company is currently pushing to turn its fortunes around. CEO George Sherman left the company after failing to meet his goals – not before cashing insome of his GME shares at meme prices.

On the e-commerce front, GameStop has recently hired several former Amazon employees to improve the digital strategy. Billionaire Chewy co-founder and GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen seems to have the credentials to help overhaul GameStop’s operations, which has helped to keep meme mania alive.

Will GameStop succeed at turning its business around? Only time will tell. In the meantime, the Reddit crowd seems to be paying close attention, in hopes that the stock can surge once again.

Twitter speaks

GameStop shares have been well off their June 9 levels, and about 50% below the late January top. How confident are you that GME will revisit its previous highs?