decrypt.co
Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets’ favorite stock, the video game store GameStop, placed an ad Friday for a security analyst skilled in blockchain, NFTs, and crypto—indicating that the company may soon venture into the wild world of decentralized finance.
The vacancy requests that the analyst has ‘skills and experience’ in the tech. To bag the role, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree or more than years of relevant work experience, and be available at all hours.
Other desirable qualities for the analyst, who’d work in the company’s headquarters of Grapevine, Texas, include machine learning, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, esports, and malware analysis.
Nako Mbelle, founder and CEO of FinTech Recruiters, a Canadian recruitment firm that specializes in crypto hires, told Decrypt that there’s a huge demand for product managers and software engineers who are trained in decentralized finance.
Mbelle said that GameStop's security analyst position could mean that the company is looking to mint NFTs or that it is adding a token to its platform.
“This position looks like they’re building something serious because they are considering the security angle,” said Mbelle. No need to protect something that doesn’t exist, after all.
NFTs, crypto collectables made popular through the art world, have a promising future in online games. They could, for instance, represent in-game items, and confer exclusive rights to use a digital sword or accept an in-game quest.
The deal with GameStop
GameStop rose to public prominence in late January when grassroots investors coordinated on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets to frantically buy its shares. This pushed up prices, forcing hedge funds to buy up even more—a trading activity known as short-squeeze.
The stock price, which rose from $40 to $492 in under a week, revived interest in GameStop, a brick-and-mortar store that has struggled to compete with online game stores.
To make the most of the freak opportunity, GameStop formed a team in late March to “identify initiatives that can further accelerate the company's transformation.”
The transformation team is composed of Ryan Cohen, the former CEO of pet supplies company Chewy, lan Attal, Chewy’s former CMO, and Gamestop director Kurt Wolf.
The recent job post suggests that crypto is in the cards. With crypto, Mbelle said that GameStop could court investors familiar to the r/WallStreetBets crowd. "If GameStop can capture the crypto crowd in the same way they've done with the Reddit crowd, they might be able to duplicate the run-up of their stock as they did a few months ago,” said Mbelle.