Roundhill Investments resurrected an exchange-traded fund focused on meme stocks on Wednesday, aiming to give everyday investors a simple way to play the new class of buzzy-yet-volatile stocks.
But if history repeats itself, that could signal the trade — and broader market — is already losing its steam.
Roundhill said the Meme Stock ETF, which launched again on Wednesday, trades under the ticker MEME. That’s the same ticker the firm used for its previous meme-focused ETF that launched in late 2021 before closing two years later.
“Meme stocks started as a rebellion but have grown into a revolution,” Dave Mazza, CEO of Roundhill Investments, said in a press release. “With MEME, we offer investors a tool to capture that power through an actively managed ETF that can rotate quickly into the stocks dominating the conversation today.”
Its previous run offers a cautionary tale. The ETF went live in early December of that year, just as the Nasdaq Composite was hitting a peak. From the ETF’s 2021 launch to the announcement of its closure in late 2023, the Nasdaq tumbled nearly 10%. The broad S&P 500 shed more than 3% in that timeframe.
Nasdaq Composite, 5 years
Well-known meme stocks fared much worse. GameStop plunged around 69% in that period, while AMC cratered by more than 96% in the nearly two-year span.
“Meme stocks were a large part of the exuberant sentiment in the 2020-2021 market, ultimately leading to a cyclical peak,” Jonathan Krinsky, BTIG’s chief market technician, in a Wednesday note to clients that pointed out the irony of the relaunch.
AMC and GameStop, 5 years
Krisnky added that the meme fund launching was an indicator of market froth “reaching fever pitch.” Roundhill’s relaunch can be taken as “another sign of some exuberance,” he warned.
To be sure, the new iteration of the fund reflects the new generation of meme stocks. During the Covid meme stock craze, Reddit user “Roaring Kitty” and followers of the WallStreetBets forum led stock squeezes of GameStop and AMC, among other names.
In today’s fund, Opendoor Technologies is the largest holding with a weight of more than nearly 12%, according to Roundhill data as of Wednesday. The stock — which finished last year below $2 a share — has skyrocketed 430% this year amid attention from hedge fund manager Eric Jackson.
The Meme ETF’s biggest holdings
| Ticker | Stock | Weight (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Opendoor Technologies | OPEN | 11.9 |
| Plug Power | PLUG | 10.7 |
| Applied Digital | APLD | 8.7 |
| QuantumScape | QS | 8.3 |
| Cipher Mining | CIFR | 7.3 |
Source: Roundhill, as of 10/8/2025
Multiple quantum computing stocks, which have also seen huge swings this year, are also among the ETF’s largest holdings. QuantumScape accounts for more than 8% of its weight, while Rigetti Computing and Quantum Computing Inc each make up more than 4%.
The ETF fell 1.8% in its first session back on Wednesday. By comparison, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both rose to all-time highs.
