GameStop bought Bitcoin to guard against inflation, not to copy MicroStrategy

GameStop boss Ryan Cohen said Tuesday on CNBC’s Squawk Box that the company’s recent crypto play is strictly about protecting itself from inflation, not trying to copy other firms.

“I look at it as a hedge against inflation and global money printing, and we’ll see what happens,” Ryan said. The statement came days after GameStop bought 4,710 bitcoins, worth over $500 million, during a market rally that saw Bitcoin cross $120,000 for the first time.

According to CNBC, Ryan was direct about not following the model of MicroStrategy, now called Strategy, which over the past few years spent billions loading up on Bitcoin to become the biggest corporate holder of it. Strategy’s decision sent its stock flying but also brought big volatility.

Ryan said that GameStop isn’t interested in chasing the same outcome. “We have our own unique strategy, and we have a very strong balance sheet, over $9 billion of cash and marketable securities,” he told the network.

Ryan Cohen says crypto buy isn’t about hype

Ryan said the company will treat capital deployment the same way he treats his own money. “We will deploy that capital responsibly as I would my own capital,” he said. “And only look for opportunities where the downside is limited and there’s a lot of upside. We’ll be opportunistic when we see those opportunities.”

The Bitcoin buy, according to him, is based on macroeconomic risks. He pointed to the fact that Bitcoin’s limited supply and decentralized structure make it useful as a store of value when fiat currencies keep getting devalued.

He also made clear that this isn’t some new path into full-on crypto speculation. It’s part of a larger plan to keep GameStop stable as it fights through rough retail headwinds. Ryan took over during the meme-stock craze of 2020 and 2021 after buying a large stake and joining the board. He made his name building Chewy, the pet food company, and retail investors saw him as the guy who could bring GameStop into the e-commerce world.

Over the past year, he’s been cutting costs, changing operations, and pulling GameStop away from its old hardware/software focus. The company is now leaning more into trading cards and collectibles, with Ryan confirming on Thursday at the company’s annual meeting that this is the new direction. “It’s a natural extension,” he said, noting that cards are embedded in physical retail and have “high margin potential.”

Wall Street isn’t buying it, and revenue numbers back that up

On Tuesday, the company posted weak results. Revenue in the first quarter fell 17% year over year to $732.4 million. The stock dropped 5% the next day. That dip came after the Bitcoin news and suggests that investors still aren’t convinced by the crypto angle, or by GameStop’s path forward in general. Shares are down 24% in 2025, after rising 79% last year.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter isn’t impressed. He stuck with his underperform rating, saying the company has always depended on hype and retail FOMO. He criticized the Bitcoin move, pointing out that GameStop is already trading at 2.4 times cash, and he doesn’t see how throwing more money into crypto will boost the premium. “Greater fools” is the phrase he used, accusing the company of depending on people who overpay for shares.

Despite all that, Ryan isn’t shifting gears. He said trading cards are gaining fast and that GameStop’s collectibles revenue grew 54% year over year in Q1. That jump was mainly powered by Pokémon cards, which he sees as a core part of the business going forward. It’s not just kids either. Circana data shows 19% of adults bought Pokémon cards for themselves in the last six months. These aren’t just being used for play either; many are collecting them or decorating with them.

Circana also said that grown-ups spent the most money on toys in Q1 compared to every other age group. GameStop is betting that trading cards and collectibles are where the real profits are now, not game consoles or physical disks. That movement is already underway, whether Wall Street wants to believe it or not.

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