Five of the key players in the GameStop stock trading saga appeared before a congressional committee to answer questions about their role in January’s tumultuous market activity.
The House Committee on Financial Services is the first governmental body to call witnesses to testify after retail investors mobilised on Reddit and bought shares in retailer GameStop, sending its stock price rocketing.
Their action sent hedge funds with short positions looking for emergency bailouts and led the stock trading platform Robinhood to pull the plug on future trades of the stock by its users. The share price has since sunk back from a peak of $483 to $45.
At the hearing on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are questioning Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, Melvin Capital founder Gabe Plotkin, trader Keith Gill, known “Roaring Kitty”.
Ahead of the hearing, committee head Representative Maxine Waters said in a statement that they will take a hard look at the hedge fund industry’s “long history of predatory conduct”. The committee will also examine Robinhood’s decision to halt trading of GameStop and other “meme stocks”.
