The House Financial Services Committee is holding a virtual hearing on February 18 to see how GameStop’s shares have risen in value after a bunch of Reddit day traders teamed up. The chair of the committee, Maxine Waters, unveiled the list of witnesses for the trial, which includes Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Reddit CEO, and co-founder Steve Huffman, as well as Redditor and YouTube streamer Keith Gill, also known as Roaring Kitty.
A New York Times reported tells how Gill played a central role in GameStop’s sudden increase in market value. According to the report, he tweeted throughout 2020 and made videos about the retailer after making a $ 53,000 investment in the company. A number of Reddit traders who followed his videos and reports lingered behind him, causing a stock market frenzy that led to huge losses for the hedge funds betting against the retailer and expecting the stock price to tumble. As a result, Gill’s original investment now has a value of $ 48 million.
The traders involved used the commission-free app Robinhood, which then temporarily restricted users from trading GameStop and certain other stocks due to lack of money. Robinhood began allowing ‘limited purchases’ of the restricted shares a few days later, but not before being sued in a class action lawsuit, accusing him of depriving his customers of the service in an attempt to market to the benefit of people and financial intuitions. ”
The Senate Banking Committee had earlier announced that it would hold a hearing ‘on the current state of the stock market’ after what happened. As for the Financial Services Committee hearing, titled “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Small Investors Clash,” you will see it on February 18 at 12:00 ET.