“Can a declining brick-and-mortar gaming retailer survive long-term by reorienting around collectibles, BNPL-enabled consumer spending, and a bitcoin treasury strategy?”
Founded in 1984 as a brick-and-mortar video game and electronics retailer, GameStop became a cultural flashpoint in 2021 when Reddit's WallStreetBets community drove a historic short squeeze. Under Ryan Cohen's leadership from 2021 onward, the company attempted a digital pivot including an NFT marketplace and self-custodial crypto wallet (shut down by 2023), while simultaneously cutting costs and closing stores. The current strategy combines a refocused retail/collectibles business (including the new Power Packs PSA card product) with a crypto treasury reserve strategy, having purchased $500M of bitcoin in 2025.
GameStop's lending and capital products are provided by Zip.
GameStop's crypto products run on MoonPay and Ramp Network.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in GameStop's stack: Lending (Zip, Buy Now Pay Later (Zip), Buy Now Pay Later (Afterpay) and $500M Asset-Based Revolving Credit Facility (Wells Fargo, corporate)); Crypto (MoonPay and Ramp Network).
GameStop is founded in 1984 and headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, USA.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against GameStop and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.