This Meme stock is giving GameStop and AMC a run for their money

The valuation of the Hong Kong-based AMTD Digital temporarily surpassed that of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, when shares of the fintech increased on Wednesday. This week's explosive gain was driven by retail investors.

The price of AMTD's shares increased by 6% during Wednesday's premarket trading. Tuesday saw a 244% increase in the company's market value, sending investors recalls to the meme stock frenzy of the previous year, which fueled record-breaking gains in the shares of businesses like GameStop and AMC.

The erratic trading is evocative of the GameStop frenzy of 2021, when a group of retail investors enthralled with Reddit were able to drive up shares of the video game company and drive out hedge funds that were shorting the stock. Alternative data source Quiver Quantitative found on Tuesday that, the ticker HKD was the most frequently spoken symbol in the WallStreetBets chatroom on Reddit.

Famous short seller Jim Chanos expressed his concerns about the frenzy on Twitter, saying that:

“So we’re all just going to ignore the $400B meme stock in the room?”.  “We literally had Congressional hearings over the $30B runs of $GME and $AMC, but just [crickets] today.”

Since the AMTD Digital's July IPO, when it debuted at $7.80, it has increased by approximately 21,000 percent.

Wall Street is uneasy about the heavy speculative activity among individual investors once again.

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor described the AMTD Digital stock as the "newest meme stock" which has retail investors flocking around it causing a frenzy in the markets, pushing the prices higher. 

After a slew of trading stops, the Hong Kong-based fintech company's shares surged 126 percent on Tuesday alone. Midway through July, AMTD Digital, began trading its American depositary receipts on the New York Stock Exchange. After two weeks, the company's stock increased by 21,400% from its stock market debut price of $7.80 to $1,679 per share.

According to FactSet, the gigantic move increased its AMTD Digital's market value past $310 billion on Tuesday, which placed it slightly higher than Coca-Cola and Bank of America. According to a regulatory filing, unpopular fintech made only $25 million in the previous year from fees and commissions.

The company, alongside many industry observers have stated that there is no traceable reason to justify the sudden stock jump.

“To our knowledge, there are no material circumstances, events nor other matters relating to our Company’s business and operating activities since the IPO date,” the company said.