The revived saga of Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, hit a crescendo this week when the meme stock influencer last seen in 2021 finally showed his face on a livestream after weeks of mysterious, market-altering social media posts that some had doubted were actually from him.

It was really him. The event came with market-wide ramifications—some of which did not work out in Gill’s favor.

After reports that Gill might be in trouble with regulators and trading platforms for posting a series of cryptic tweets and less-cryptic posts on Reddit that quadrupled the price of Gamestop (GME)—and similarly pumped other meme stocks and related crypto tokens—the influencer scheduled a live broadcast on YouTube for Friday.

As soon as the broadcast began, Twitter erupted, unleashing a week's worth of Crypto Twitter craziness in a matter of hours. And the appearance—Gill’s first in years—was characteristically absurd, partly thanks to his wearing bandages and an arm sling. 

Twitter users rejoiced as the mainstream financial press begrudgingly—but breathlessly—covered the stream, given Gill’s historically outsize influence over meme stocks.

During the show, Gill delved into his GME position, which had caught the eye of market watchers even before he revealed it was him. It was worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and had grown by leaps and bounds almost daily.

Many speculated that holding such a position could put the influencer in hot water given his proven market-moving power. 

That context certainly cast a pall over Gill’s livestream on Friday. Indeed, the trader started by asking over 700,000 viewers,  “Do I have to be careful about what I say here?”

The most immediate market movement that day, however, was not caused by Gill nor by regulators, but instead by the company whose stock he favored: GameStop released its quarterly earnings report four days early—basically beating Roaring Kitty to the spotlight—and the numbers were not great.

Over the course of Friday, GME plunged nearly 40%, wiping out some $235 million from Gill’s position.

Some felt the GME cause would have been better served if Gill never spoke. 

But others were adamant that in several crucial, even subtle ways, Roaring Kitty’s chaotic revival was actually a quiet success.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.