Just when it seemed like Wall Street had lost its appetite for risk, it came back for seconds. Beyond MeatBYND

spent years bleeding out as Americans chose real burgers over plant-based ones. It finally collapsed to 50 cents last week before suddenly resurrecting as retail traders piled in and turned it into the latest GameStopGME

style frenzy.

Not beyond hope: Beyond Meat had all the ingredients of a meme stock rally — a beaten-down share price, heavy short interest from hedge funds, and a perfect David-versus-Goliath storyline. The company had never turned a profit, and sales have been sliding for years as consumers returned to real meat and competitors like Impossible Foods crowded the space. Its recent debt restructuring flooded the market with new shares, crushing the stock but easing immediate bankruptcy fears. For a company that once traded above $200, this was, by any rational measure, a stock to avoid.

• Still, last week, more than half the shares were sold short, setting the stage for a squeeze where traders betting against the stock get forced to buy back shares as prices rise.
• The broader plant-based meat industry has been in freefall, with revenues and unit sales dropping significantly as inflation-conscious shoppers rejected premium-priced alternatives.

The Capybara Effect

Then Dimitri Semenikhin showed up. Posting under the name Capybara Stocks, he bought ~4% of Beyond Meat when it was trading for pocket change — and started posting his bullish thesis on Reddit and YouTube. He believes the debt deal that everyone hated actually removed the bankruptcy risk and set up conditions for a massive short squeeze. He said investors misinterpreted the share issuance as bearish when it was actually bullish, and that Beyond Meat was either buying time to grow or positioning itself to be acquired. The post got removed, but not before retail traders caught wind of it.

• Call options trading exploded to more than triple previous records as traders bet on continued gains, and Beyond Meat became the top trending stock on r/WallStreetBets.
• Roundhill Investments added the stock to its Meme Stock ETF — a fund dedicated to meme stocks that had previously shut down due to lack of interest but recently relaunched.

FOMO rush: Beyond Meat gave its rally another boost yesterday with news of expanded distribution at WalmartWMT

. Although the frenzy was already in full swing, the spike drew in more retail traders hoping to catch the wave. As the stock surged, short sellers scrambled to cover their positions, buying back shares and sending prices even higher. The hype may be well-done, but the company’s still undercooked.