05/28 update: GameStop has confirmed its first bitcoin purchase, announcing it’s bought 4,710 bitcoin worth $511 million.

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“It’s time to start paying attention to GameStop,” one bitcoin trader posted to X, commenting on a video clip taken from the Bitcoin Magazine live stream of the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. “Buckle up,” added another.

“I think the obvious name is GameStop,” Bitcoin Treasuries podcast host Tim Kotzman said during the live stream when asked which companies traders should be paying attention to, saying the other name would be “the U.S. government.”

Earlier this year, GameStop, which rode the meme stock craze to a $30 billion market capitalization in 2021, announced it had raised $1.5 billion in a private offering of convertible notes to buy bitcoin but has not yet announced that it has made a purchase.

GameStop’s share price has exploded almost 70% since its early April fund raising announcement and is now trading at levels not seen since the tail end of the meme stock craze in 2022.

In March, Kip Herriage a GameStop investor with Vertical Research Advisory told CNBC he believes GameStop’s stock will rocket to $100 per share, topping its meme stock craze peak of around $80, if it goes all in on bitcoin.

“We applaud [GameStop chief executive] Ryan Cohen on this excellent move,” Herriage said, adding GameStop should plow a further $1 billion into bitcoin beyond the $1.5 that it’s already earmarked for bitcoin and the only problem Cohen has is that he didn’t do this sooner.

A flood of companies are vying to copy Michael Saylor’s success with his software company-turned-bitcoin buyer Strategy, which has seen its market capitalization rocket after it began buying bitcoin in 2020—catapulting it into the Nasdaq 100 index late last year.

Strategy, previously known as MicroStrategy, now owns almost 600,000 bitcoin worth just over $60 billion after selling huge amounts of shares and issuing debt to fuel its purchases.

Speaking at Bitcoin 2025, White House crypto czar David Sacks repeated the official line that the U.S. could buy more bitcoin if Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick or Treasury secretary Scott Bessent can find a way to do so in a “budget-neutral” way without a tax or adding to the growing national debt.

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“Maybe by finding the money from some other program that’s not using it—then we could potentially acquire more bitcoin,” Sacks told Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in an on-stage interview.

“The question is, can we get either the Treasury Department or the Commerce Department to get excited about that because if they do and they can figure out how to fund it, they actually do have presidential authorization,” Sacks said in comments reported by Cointelegraph, referring to Trump’s executive order.

“The Trump administration continues signalling strong support for bitcoin,” Gadi Chait, head of investment at Gibraltar-based private bank Xapo, said in emailed comments, pointing to Trump’s media company, which is behind the Truth Social app, confirming a Financial Times report that it plans to raise $2.5 billion to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

“This extraordinary endorsement from the highest levels of government underscores just how mainstream bitcoin has become. If this momentum continues, discussions of bitcoin’s future may finally move beyond short-term concern over its inherent volatility, and instead focus on its future as a foundational asset within the global economy.”