NEW YORK — Videogame retailer GameStop Corp. has shifted roughly $315 million worth of Bitcoin — virtually its entire crypto treasury — to Coinbase Prime as part of a covered-call options program designed to squeeze income from the dormant asset, according to people familiar with the matter and a regulatory filing released this week.
The company transferred about 4,500 BTC to Coinbase’s institutional platform on 21 March and began writing one-month, out-of-the-money call contracts a day later, the sources said. The move was confirmed in an 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on 22 March, which described the activity as “a treasury management strategy intended to enhance liquidity without materially increasing risk.”
GameStop accumulated the Bitcoin pile in late 2021 amid the meme-stock frenzy that sent its share price soaring. Since then, the digital coins have largely sat idle on the company’s balance sheet while GameStop’s core business — selling physical video games and collectibles — has struggled against digital downloads and big-box competitors.
“With cash burn accelerating, management is under pressure to monetize every non-core asset it owns,” said one sell-side analyst who asked not to be named discussing private client conversations. “Writing calls on Bitcoin generates yield while preserving upside participation should BTC rally beyond the strike.”
Under the arrangement, Coinbase Prime will act as both custodian and execution desk, charging a sliding fee tied to notional volume, two people briefed on the contract terms told Decrypt. Internal projections circulated to the board project a 6%–8% annualized return if Bitcoin volatility remains near current levels, those people added.
The structure is not without risk. If Bitcoin’s price jumps sharply, GameStop must deliver the coins at the agreed strike, potentially capping upside just as the company needs the asset most. Still, covered calls are viewed on Wall Street as one of the more conservative option strategies because the writer already owns the underlying asset.
Looking ahead, analysts say the experiment could pave the way for other publicly traded corporates that hold crypto to generate yield in a regulated setting. “If this proves successful, I’d expect to see similar filings from Tesla, MicroStrategy and smaller Nasdaq names sitting on large BTC positions,” said Martha Khoury, head of digital-asset strategy at a New York investment bank.
GameStop is due to report fourth-quarter earnings on 4 April, when executives are expected to provide additional color on the program’s early performance and whether the retailer might extend the strategy to other digital assets.