Original author: Thejaswini MA

Original translation: Luffy, Foresight News

Ryan Cohen has done it again, acting without warning, explanation, or permission.

On a Tuesday in May 2025, in a routine disclosure in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents that was ignored by most investors, the following words quietly appeared in GameStop's 8-K form: "A total of 4,710 bitcoins were purchased."

The CEO who had led a nearly bankrupt video game retailer back to life had just put more than $500 million of company cash into Bitcoin. No press release, no investor call, just the minimum disclosure required by law.

When BTC Inc’s David Bailey asked Cohen the question everyone was asking, Cohen’s answer put an end to months of speculation.

“Did GameStop buy Bitcoin?”

“Yes. We currently have 4,710 Bitcoins.”

Just like that, Cohen, with his usual "understatement," turned GameStop into the world's 14th largest corporate Bitcoin holder - just as he built Chewy from scratch into a $3.35 billion unicorn.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. This is the man whose involvement inspired millions of retail investors to short some of Wall Street’s most sophisticated hedge funds. He took a company that many so-called experts thought was doomed to fail and turned it into one that upended all traditional valuation models.

Cohen’s path from a college dropout selling pet food online to the architect of a new kind of corporate strategy began as a teenager in Florida, understanding that the best opportunities were hidden where everyone else had given up.

From school dropout to business disruptor

Ryan Cohen’s entrepreneurial inception began long before he was of legal driving age.

Cohen was born in Montreal in 1986. His mother was a teacher and his father, Ted Cohen, ran a glassware importing company. When he was young, his family moved to Coral Springs, Florida. At the age of 15, Cohen started his own business, collecting referral fees from various e-commerce websites.

By the age of 16, his business had expanded from simple referrals to a more structured e-commerce operation, and he understood the essence of e-commerce when most people still thought the Internet was just a fad.

His father, Ted, became his most important mentor, teaching him the importance of delayed gratification, work ethic, and viewing business relationships as long-term partnerships. Ultimately, Cohen decided to drop out of the University of Florida to focus on business full-time. He had already proven that he could acquire clients and generate revenue, and college was just a detour from his mission.

Pet food revolution

In 2011, the e-commerce field was dominated by Amazon, and most entrepreneurs avoided it, but the 25-year-old Cohen chose "non-direct competition."

Rather than trying to beat Amazon in product selection or logistics, Cohen found an area where customer relationships were more important than operational efficiency: pet supplies. Pet owners care about "family members" rather than just buying products. They need advice, empathy, and the understanding that "a sick pet is not just a nuisance, it's a crisis."

The core idea behind Chewy is simple: combine Amazon’s logistics with Zappos’ customer service philosophy to create a customized experience for pet owners. The company sells pet supplies online, but more importantly, it builds connections with customers that go beyond personal transactions.

Early execution was methodical and customer-centric. Chewy’s customer service team not only processed orders, but also sent handwritten holiday cards, customized pet portraits for loyal customers, and delivered flowers when a beloved pet passed away. These services cost money and were difficult to scale. Here’s a tweet that went viral:

But building an emotional connection didn’t pay off, and in its first two years, Cohen faced a problem that would have shut down most startups: No one wanted to invest in a pet food company that was competing with Amazon.

One hundred rejections

Pitch sessions are a torture for entrepreneurs. Between 2011 and 2013, Cohen contacted more than 100 venture capital firms, explaining why pet supplies represented a huge opportunity for a customer-centric company. Most VCs saw what they saw: a company founded by a college dropout with no traditional business experience, trying to carve out a niche dominated by an invincible competitor.

The turning point did not come until 2013, when Volition Capital provided $15 million in Series A financing. This funding allowed Cohen to expand Chewy's operations while maintaining its customer-centric corporate culture. By 2016, the company received investments from BlackRock and T. Rowe Price, and annual sales reached $900 million.

Chewy’s customer retention rate is very high, their average order value continues to increase, and most importantly, customers become evangelists who recommend the service to other pet owners.

By 2018, Chewy's annual revenue had reached $3.5 billion and it was preparing for an IPO. It was then that PetSmart made a $3.35 billion acquisition offer to Chewy, which was the largest acquisition in e-commerce history at the time. Cohen, 31, was worth hundreds of millions, but chose to leave Chewy and return to his family.

Family Intermission

In 2018, Ryan Cohen, at the peak of his career, made a decision that baffled the business world.

He resigned as CEO of Chewy to be with his pregnant wife and prepare for fatherhood. He said goodbye to the company he had spent seven years building. Cohen has achieved financial independence, and he plans to use that freedom to enjoy the most important moments in his life.

He sold most of his Chewy shares to focus on being a husband and father. For a man who had been focused on growth and competition since his teenage years, the transition to family life might have been awkward. However, Cohen embraced it all.

Even during this period of family focus, he remained an active investor, with a portfolio that included Apple (with 1.55 million shares, making him one of the largest individual shareholders), Wells Fargo and other blue-chip companies.

The family foundation he created with his wife, Stephanie, supports education, animal welfare and other charitable causes.

The break lasted three years until he discovered GameStop.

GameStop Gamble

In September 2020, when most investors viewed GameStop as a failing brick-and-mortar retailer being killed by digital downloads and streaming services, Ryan Cohen saw something different: a company with strong brand recognition and a loyal customer base, but management had no idea how to leverage either asset.

Cohen's investment firm RC Ventures disclosed a nearly 10% stake in the troubled video game retailer, becoming the company's largest shareholder, a move that puzzled Wall Street analysts, who couldn't understand why someone with Cohen's extensive experience would invest in an "obsolete" retail business.

Cohen believes that GameStop is not only a retail chain, but also a cultural landmark in the gaming community. Customers are fanatics who love gaming culture, collectibles and social experiences and are willing to pay a premium for emotional connection.

The problem is that management views the company as a traditional retailer rather than a community-driven platform.

In January 2021, Cohen joined the GameStop board, and the news triggered a buying spree among retail investors. Within two weeks, GameStop's stock price rose 1,500%, creating one of the most famous short squeezes in market history.

While the financial media’s attention is focused on the “meme stock” phenomenon and the battle between retail investors and hedge funds, Cohen is concerned with more fundamental changes.

Cohen is rebuilding GameStop the same way he founded Chewy.

When he took over, "the company was in a mess and losing a lot of money."

He started by cutting out the leadership team. Ten board members left, replaced by executives from Amazon and Chewy who really understood e-commerce. If you want to compete in the digital space, you need experienced talent.

Next came cost cutting. Cohen cut inefficiencies across the board: redundant jobs, underperforming stores, expensive consultants, but kept everything that mattered to customers. The goal was to maintain profitability even as sales fell.

Let's take a look at the specific data changes before and after Cohen took over GameStop:

Cohen took over a company with $5.1 billion in revenue and an annual loss of more than $200 million. After three years of system restructuring, he successfully led GameStop to profitability for the first time in 2023-2024. Despite a 25% drop in revenue due to store closures, he still increased gross profit margin by 440 basis points and turned an annual loss of $215 million into a profit of $131 million. This proves that smaller companies can also generate significant profits.

His bet is on digital transformation. Brick-and-mortar stores will survive, but only the best will. GameStop's future is online, serving gaming enthusiasts who want more than just video games — collectibles, trading cards, merchandise, anything related to gaming culture. Cohen also stockpiled cash and gained the power to make strategic investments. On September 28, 2023, he becomes CEO while continuing to serve as chairman. His salary is zero. His compensation is tied entirely to the stock price, meaning he gets paid only when shareholders make a profit.

Then there are the cryptocurrency bets.

GameStop’s first foray into crypto assets exemplifies both the promise and the risks of using emerging technologies.

In July 2022, the company launched an NFT marketplace focused on gaming-related digital collectibles. Initial results look promising: over $3.5 million in trading volume in the first 48 hours suggests there is real demand for gaming NFTs.

But the collapse of the NFT market came quickly and brutally. Sales plummeted from $77.4 million in 2022 to just $2.8 million in 2023. GameStop stopped its crypto wallet service in November 2023 and shut down its NFT trading function in February 2024, citing "regulatory uncertainty in the crypto space."

This failure could have ended GameStop’s cryptocurrency business completely. However, Cohen learned from it and developed a more mature digital asset strategy.

Betting on Bitcoin

May 28, 2025. While the market was obsessed with Fed policy, GameStop quietly bought 4,710 Bitcoins worth $513 million.

Cohen's reasons are as rigorous as ever:

If this argument is correct, then Bitcoin and gold can serve as a hedge against global currency debasement and systemic risk. Bitcoin has certain unique advantages over gold: Portability, it can be transferred instantly around the world, while gold is bulky and very expensive to transport. Its authenticity can be instantly verified through the blockchain. You can store Bitcoin easily and securely in your wallet, while gold requires insurance and is very costly. There is also the scarcity factor, Bitcoin's supply is fixed, while for gold, technological advances mean that supply remains uncertain.

The move makes GameStop the 14th-largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.

The company financed its bitcoin purchases through convertible bonds rather than core capital, while still maintaining a strong cash reserve of more than $4 billion. This strategy reflects a diversified and prudent strategy rather than a one-size-fits-all approach: positioning bitcoin as a side bet rather than a core business.

"GameStop follows GameStop's strategy, and we don't follow anyone else's strategy."

GameStop shares fell after the announcement, but Cohen didn't seem to care.

On June 25, GameStop raised an additional $450 million by exercising its over-allotment option, bringing its total convertible bond offering to $2.7 billion.

An over-allotment option is a provision in an offering agreement that allows underwriters to issue up to 15% more shares than originally planned if demand is strong. Exercising the option gives a company a chance to raise more money while helping to stabilize the stock price after the offering. In GameStop's case, that meant issuing more convertible bonds to increase the total amount of money raised.

The funds will be used for "general corporate purposes and to invest in a manner consistent with GameStop's investment policy," which explicitly includes purchasing Bitcoin as a reserve asset.

Cohen has an “army of apes.” The most unusual part of Cohen’s GameStop story is the millions of retail investors who refused to sell.

They call themselves "apes" and behave very differently from ordinary stockholders. They don't trade based on earnings reports or analyst ratings. They hold stocks because they believe in Cohen's vision and want to see what will happen in the future.

This is “patient capital,” almost unheard of in the public markets. Cohen can focus on long-term strategy without worrying about quarterly fluctuations because his core group of investors won’t churn away easily.