(Reuters) -E*Trade is considering telling meme-stock influencer Keith Gill he can no longer use its platform after growing concerns about potential stock manipulation amid his recent purchases of GameStop, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Shortly before Gill reignited a meme stock craze in May, he bought a large volume of GameStop options on E*Trade, the Journal’s report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
E*Trade-parent Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the report.
GameStop shares jumped around 30% on Monday after the stocks influencer, known as “Roaring Kitty”, returned to Reddit with a post showing a $116 million bet on the embattled videogame retailer.
The post was the first in three years from his Reddit account by Gill, the influencer behind the 2021 retail trading frenzy. In 2021, screenshots on Reddit of his bullish GameStop trades triggered a rush of demand for “meme stocks” – often companies with weak fundamentals that gained a cult-like following through social media hype among retail traders.
The screenshot posted on Sunday showed a GameStop holding of 5 million shares, or 1.8% of its publicly available stock. Gill’s last post from April 2021, titled “final update”, showed a holding of 200,000 shares worth $30.9 million.
Reuters could not verify the screenshot on Reddit.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
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