GameStop Follows Strategy... First Bitcoin Purchase

Purchase of 4,710 Bitcoins Worth 705 Billion Won Announced

As a Measure to Overcome the Slump in Video Game Offline Store Business

GameStop, a video game retailer famous for meme stocks, officially announced on the 28th (local time) that it has purchased 4,710 Bitcoins. Following this news, GameStop's stock price rose by 3% in pre-market trading on the US stock exchange that day.

According to CNBC, GameStop announced that it purchased Bitcoins worth 512.6 million dollars (about 705 billion won) in its first investment that day. The price of Bitcoin (BTCUSD) was recorded at 108,837 dollars that day. In the annual report released in April, GameStop had accumulated 4.76 billion dollars (6.55 trillion won) in cash as of February 1.

After the US-China tariff war entered a truce and Moody's downgraded the US Treasury's credit rating, alternative value storage means like Bitcoin have been gaining attention.

After CNBC reported in February that GameStop planned to add cryptocurrency to its financial statements, GameStop finalized this plan at the end of March. The company stated that it has not set an upper limit on Bitcoin purchases.

GameStop is following the business strategy of the former MicroStrategy, now renamed Strategy, led by Michael Saylor. Strategy has become the largest Bitcoin-holding company by purchasing billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin in recent years.

GameStop's venture into cryptocurrency investment is part of CEO Ryan Cohen's efforts to revive the struggling offline store business. CEO Cohen has been focusing on cost reduction and operational efficiency to secure GameStop's profitability.

Guest Reporter Jung-A Kim kja@hankyung.com