GameStop's stock surged on Monday's Wall Street trading, reminiscent of the 2021 investment frenzy driven by WallStreetBets, and the rise of "meme stocks." This rally coincides with the social media return of one of the key figures from that period after a three-year hiatus.

Specifically, GameStop saw its stock rise by 90% in early trading, potentially challenging its historic monthly rally of 87% in March 2021.

As mentioned, this stock movement follows the reappearance on social media, specifically on X (formerly Twitter), of the famous user "Roaring Kitty," known in real life as Keith Gill (and on Reddit as "DeepFuckingValue"). Gill posted a sketch of a gamer leaning into his chair, marking his first post since June 2021.

Notably, within just a few hours, Roaring Kitty's tweet garnered over 7.5 million views worldwide.

Gill, a former marketing employee at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, rose to fame during 2020-21 by encouraging small investors through YouTube videos and Reddit posts to invest in heavily shorted stocks of companies near bankruptcy. This led to the historic short squeeze in GameStop.

Massive purchases of GameStop stock, a company that sold video games—a nearly obsolete product in the era of widespread internet access that had brought it close to shutdown—forced hedge funds with short positions to cover them hastily at significant losses, driving the stock price to unprecedented levels (and enabling the company to secure substantial liquidity).

For the record, the meme stock frenzy effectively ended when brokers, particularly the online platform Robinhood, suddenly halted trading in heavily shorted stocks, trapping small investors and resulting in legal battles that did not favor the users.

Meanwhile, the value of meme stocks gradually collapsed, with GameStop currently down 80% from its historical highs.

Nevertheless, GameStop's options activity has skyrocketed this month, with 588,000 open contracts, and on Friday alone, 292,000 call options were traded—almost twenty times the 20-day average.

GameStop's rally is also boosting another famous 2021 meme stock, AMC, which is up over 20% in pre-market trading.