GameStop shares jump 26% in after-hours trading after launching NFT unit

Shares of GameStop Corporation (GME), the most-followed stock on Reddit, rose by a quarter in after-hours trading after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company was about to launch an NFT division.

The U.S. retail game store giant has been quietly developing the NFT marketplace since May and posted several job openings in October, including for a software engineer and product marketer with Web 3.0 and NFT experience.

According to a Jan. 6 report from The Wall Street Journal, GameStop has now hired more than 20 people to run its new NFT division.

An unnamed source familiar with GameStop's plans told the outlet that the division is building an NFT platform that will allow the buying, selling and trading of gaming NFTs, as well as key cryptocurrency partnerships.

Scheduled to launch later this year, the marketplace is said to be about to enter into a partnership with two crypto firms that will share technology and jointly invest in the development of blockchain and NFT games, among other NFT projects.

The news was warmly welcomed by after-hours traders, who sent GME shares up 26%. After-hours trading (AHT) is often quite volatile due to the lack of liquidity in the market, but can affect stock prices in a similar way to regular trading.

However, the Journal has no named sources and no direct confirmation from GameStop, which has drawn the attention of some of the more conspiracy-minded GME fanatics. User "u/brettmagnetic" in a post on the r/Superstonk Reddit community with 1,100 comments and a 97% approval rating questioned whether the WSJ article could really have had such a big impact on GME after-hours trading bullish impact.

"Sorry, but I don't think the after-hours price action has anything to do with the WSJ's coverage of the Gamestop NFT marketplace. I think something else is going on, and this article is all about scapegoating that NFT marketplace for price increases."

User "MrFlags69" echoed a similar sentiment, arguing: "This author sees 'people' as the only source they see. This is not a news report at all."

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