(Reuters) – YouTube broadcaster known as Roaring Kitty, which helped generate increased interest in GameStop Corp., will testify in a home court on Thursday along with top hedge fund managers.
The House Financial Services Committee is examining how an apparent flood of retail trade took GameStop and other stocks to extremes, squeezing hedge funds like Melvin Capital that had bet on them.
The list of witnesses was announced Friday by Congresswoman Maxine Waters and includes Keith Gill, who also goes through Roaring Kitty, Vlad Tenev, executive director of Robinhood, Kenneth Griffin, executive of the Citadel, Gabriel Plotkin, executive director of Melvin, and Steve Huffman, executive director of Reddit.
The virtual audience, entitled “Stopped game? Who wins and loses when short sellers, social media and retail investors collide, ”will take place on February 18 at 1200 ET (17:00 GMT), according to the press release and will be played live here. Waters, a Democrat, he is Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
“We are working with the House Financial Services Committee and we plan to testify,” Huffman of Reddit said in an emailed statement. Representatives from Melvin, Citadel and Robinhood did not respond to requests for comment. Gill could not be reached for comment.
Robinhood, Reddit, Melvin and Citadel have been at the center of the GameStop saga, which saw retailers promote GameStop on the Reddit WallStreetBets forum. Robinhood emerged as a popular place to trade stocks, but was criticized for temporarily restricting hot stock trading.
GameStop’s rise resulted in massive losses for Melvin, after the hedge fund bet the retailer’s stock price would fall. Citadel hedge funds, along with founder Griffin and firm partners, contributed $ 2 billion to Melvin.
Democrats and Republicans are united in their outrage over Robinhood’s decision to suspend trading in so-called “meme stocks” on Jan. 28. Robinhood’s clearing house, which tenses the company’s balance sheet.
Massachusetts securities regulators have also issued a subpoena to request Gill’s testimony.
Reports by Michelle Price and Megan Davies, additional reports by Svea Herbst-Bayliss and John McCrank; Edited by Sonya Hepinstall and Daniel Wallis