Two months of speculation ended Tuesday when GameStop confirmed it had never sold any bitcoin. According to its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company pledged 4,709 coins in Coinbase Credit as collateral for its covered call options strategy.
On-chain analysts sounded the alarm in January.
When on-chain trackers discovered GameStop moving its entire Bitcoin stash to Coinbase Prime in January, speculation that the company was selling quickly spread. That reading turned out to be wrong. The transfer was part of a structured option play, not an exit.
GameStop sold covered call contracts with strike prices between $105,000 and $110,000 and are scheduled to expire this Friday. Depending on that setup, the company collects the premium up front and keeps the Bitcoin if the buyer walks away without exercising the option. Some January contracts have already expired unexercised.
The company still holds one Bitcoin held outside the collateral contract. 4,709 promised coins have been reclassified and remain on the books.
BTCUSD trading at $67,312 on the 24-hour chart: TradingView
Why coins are no longer held directly
Because Coinbase Credit allows for the reuse of pledged assets (a practice called re-collateralization), GameStop removed 4,709 coins from its balance sheet as direct holdings and instead recorded them as digital asset receivables. The company said in its filing that although the label has changed, its exposure to Bitcoin price fluctuations has not.
The exposure was painless. The value of the collateralized coins was valued at $368 million as of January 31, with unrealized losses recorded that day of just over $59 million. Bitcoin is down about 45% from its all-time high. The filing also shows unrealized profits of $2.3 million and liabilities of $700,000 related to option positions.
GameStop entered Bitcoin after Cohen met with Saylor.
According to the report, CEO Ryan Cohen met with Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor in early 2025 to discuss the company’s Bitcoin strategy. GameStop announced its upcoming move to Bitcoin. Before Coinbase, the company was ranked among the top 25 Bitcoin holdings by size, according to bitcointreasuries.net.
The SEC filing closes a chapter that many read as an imminent end. GameStop holds Bitcoin. You are losing money on paper. And now he’s using that position to make money while he waits.
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView
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