Meme stocks are back: Opendoor up 439% in a month, Krispy Kreme and GoPro surge on retail frenzy

Summary

Retail investors are chasing meme stocks again with intensity that suggests the phenomenon may have become a permanent market cycle rather than something tied to specific conditions.

The velocity

Opendoor, a real estate platform co-founded by Keith Rae Boy, has surged 439% in a month after trading under $1 a share last week. Krispy Kreme is up 40% in five days. GoPro jumped 57% in a single session. Kohl's, QuantumScape, and Rigetti Computing have all rocketed higher on social media momentum. The moves mirror the GameStop and AMC mania that erupted in 2021, with one critical difference: the original wave ran on stimulus checks, near-zero interest rates, and newly minted retail traders flush with capital. Those conditions mostly do not exist now.

The mechanism

Meme stock traders target heavily shorted companies and try to trigger a short squeeze. If a stock rises, short sellers are forced to buy shares to exit losing positions. That fresh demand can send prices spiraling further. The strategy itself is straightforward. What remains unexplained is why it is happening again.

Eric Jackson, a hedge fund manager, posted on X on July 14th that his firm EMJ Capital had taken a position in Opendoor. The stock gained double digits on six consecutive days following his endorsement. A 38-year-old educator in California named Melvin Berentos bought Opendoor shares under $1 and sold them for roughly a $3,000 profit within weeks, trading both shares and put options as the stock gyrated wildly.

The options market reveals the pure speculation most clearly. Opendoor traded over three million option contracts on Monday, nearly as much as the S&P 500. More option contracts changed hands on the $2 billion market-cap company than on Nvidia, the $4 trillion AI behemoth. According to Quant Data founder Heisinger, "That's pretty much unheard of." The surge clearly was not tied to fundamentals.

The framing problem

The original meme stock wave had narrative weight: nostalgia for GameStop and lost retail, rebellion against hedge funds betting against beloved brands, stimulus checks and zero rates flooding retail accounts. This wave has no such spine. Opendoor has no nostalgia angle. GoPro and Krispy Kreme fit a "buy companies you love" story, but that is thin cover for naked speculation.

One theory holds that retail traders are racing to catch the next 300% move before missing it entirely. That urgency creates an incentive loop where speed matters more than thesis. Traders who missed Opendoor's run hunt for the next candidate, explaining why stocks without clear catalysts spike anyway.

Interest rates may matter. Powell staying as Fed chair means rates remain elevated, which should theoretically reduce the leverage and margin availability that fuels meme stock frenzies. The odds markets priced Powell's removal at 24% a few weeks ago; Trump's reported decision not to fire him dropped that to 18%.

The absurdist turn

Matt Levine, Bloomberg's columnist, noted that the crypto treasury strategy has saturated. Companies can buy Bitcoin and see the market price it at $2 for $1 of Bitcoin, but diminishing returns are setting in. Levine joked that the next play might be a company announcing a major position in MicroStrategy stock or classic Ferraris. The joke arrived fully formed when QuantumBioPharmaceutical, a biotech firm focused on neurodegenerative diseases, announced it had purchased 2,000 shares of GameStop for $50,000 as a "strategic investment" aligned with its "ongoing commitment to combating market corruption." The stock was down that morning. Levine wrote, "Good effort."

The cycle question

Unlike 2021, when the conditions were clear and traceable, this wave has no obvious trigger. Stimulus checks, influencers making content about when checks would arrive, and YouTubers pivoting that traffic into stock tips drove the earlier mania. That absent context raises an uncomfortable possibility: meme stocks may simply be a permanent feature of retail-enabled markets, cycling on and off as capital chases the last big move regardless of fundamentals or macro tailwinds.