GameStop Stock Jumps After Company Enters NFTs

The shares pared even bigger gains from earlier in the session and settled at $140.62. The company’s share price surged to all-time highs last year during a Reddit-driven frenzy and is up more than 650% over the past year. 

But it has been a rocky start in 2022 for meme stocks overall. AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.’s stock has fallen more than 15% in the first week of the year. Even with Friday’s gains, GameStop shares are down 5.2% for the week.

The new division is the latest in a string of moves that company executives have made to overhaul the retailer. The company has specialized in selling hard copies of games even though many consumers are opting to download and stream games over the internet. GameStop was one of many companies hurt during the pandemic as businesses around the country were shut down. 

Last year, GameStop had a shake-up within its executive team and it named activist Ryan Cohen as chairman.

GameStop isn’t the only memestock to add crypto features to its business. AMC last year said that it would accept bitcoin at its movie theaters. AMC’s Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron wrote on Twitter Thursday that he has been “repeatedly asked when AMC expects to routinely accept Dogecoin and Shiba Inu for any and all payments made via the AMC” website and mobile app.

 He said that AMC is on track to implement the change in the first quarter of the year.

Write to Gunjan Banerji at gunjan.banerji@wsj.com