(Reuters) – The YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty, who sparked interest in GameStop Corp, will testify before a House panel on Thursday with top hedge fund managers.
The House Financial Services Committee is examining how an apparent spate of retail trade pushed GameStop and other stocks to extreme heights, suppressing hedge funds like Melvin Capital that had gambled against it.
The witness list was released Friday by Congressman Maxine Waters and includes Keith Gill, who also passes Roaring Kitty, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin, Melvin CEO Gabriel Plotkin and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.
The virtual hearing entitled “Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media and Retail Investors Collide, “will take place February 18 at 1200 ET (1700 GMT), according to the press release and live streamed here. Waters, a Democrat, is Chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services .
“We are working with the House Financial Services Committee and plan to testify,” Reddit’s Huffman said in an emailed statement. Representatives from Melvin, Citadel and Robinhood did not respond to requests for comment. Gill was unavailable for comment.
Robinhood, Reddit, Melvin and Citadel were central to the GameStop saga, in which retailers promoted GameStop on the Reddit forum WallStreetBets. Robinhood emerged as a popular location to trade the stock, but was criticized for temporarily limiting trading in the hot stock.
GameStop’s rise resulted in massive losses for Melvin after the hedge fund bet dropped the retailer’s stock price. Citadel’s hedge funds, along with founder Griffin and longtime partners, have put $ 2 billion into Melvin.
Democrats and Republicans are united in their outrage over Robinhood’s decision to suspend trading of the so-called “meme shares” on Jan. 28. Tenev said the company had to impose the restrictions after wild trading in the stock caused a $ 3 billion margin from Robinhood’s clearinghouse, straining the company’s balance sheet.
Massachusetts securities regulators have also issued a subpoena asking Gill’s testimony.
Reporting by Michelle Price and Megan Davies, additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss and John McCrank; Edited by Sonya Hepinstall and Daniel Wallis