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Still, the frenzy has proved fruitful for new billionaire Cohen–even if at the whim of an insane social media battle. “It doesn’t make business sense,” Doug Clinton, the cofounder of Loup Ventures, told Bloomberg Monday of GameStop's retail trading frenzy. The average GameStop price target, from eight analysts issuing such guidance, remains about 80% below current price levels. Reddit traders seem convinced he'll bring the same growth to GameStop, but Wall Street experts are much more skeptical. "We'll be done growing when we're 6 feet under," he said in a 2017 interview with Forbes, a few months before he sold the business to PetSmart. About a decade later, in 2011, he founded Chewy and pushed to expand its volume from the start, pulling in 3 million patrons by 2017. The son of a teacher and a glassware importer, Cohen got his entrepreneurial start at the age of 15, collecting fees for referring customers to e-commerce sites. His growing investment helped him nab three seats on GameStop's board earlier this month–one for himself and two for a couple of his former Chewy executives. In the meantime, Cohen's just getting started with GameStop.

"What's happening with GameStop’s stock is a reminder of how times are changing: A new army of traders are not focused on valuations, but rather on momentum opportunities they see from Reddit’s WallStreetBets, Youtubers, TikTok or Robinhood."

"The retail trader just picked a fight with Citron and won," Oanda Senior Market Analyst Edward Moya said Monday of the "crazed buying" behind GameStop's meteoric rise. The move triggered so much online backlash that the shop's founder said he turned in threatening comments from "an angry mob" of shareholders to authorities. The momentum came to a head in recent days, after storied Wall Street shop Citron Research went public with a short on GameStop shares at $20–about one-fifth of current levels. Retail traders, meanwhile, have lauded Cohen's involvement, with Reddit discussion boards including r/WallStreetBets (which counts more than 2 million members) revealing a slew of bullish at-home traders driving up the stock's price despite widespread bearishness from institutional investors. In other words, institutional traders that were betting against the stock are now buying borrowed shares to cut their losses or secure gains on the possibility that the firm could actually be in for a turnaround. Analysts are pinning the gains to a surge in interest from retail investors, which has in turn fueled a short squeeze. Shares are up a staggering 25% as of 12 p.m.

Given how volatile GameStop stock has been, it’s not clear how long Cohen will hold onto his billionaire status. A spokesperson for Cohen said he was not available for an interview at press time. Tack that onto the proceeds Cohen received from PetSmart's $3.4 billion acquisition of Chewy in 2017, and Forbes estimates the 35-year-old is worth about $1 billion. GameStop shares are up more than 800% since his declaration, and the value of Cohen's stake has skyrocketed to about $825 million. It’s unlikely that Cohen, or anyone for that matter, could have predicted what would play out over the next couple of months. "GameStop needs to evolve into a technology company that delights gamers and delivers exceptional digital experiences–not remain a video game retailer that overprioritizes its brick-and-mortar footprint and stumbles around the online ecosystem." "Unfortunately, it is evident that GameStop currently lacks the mindset, resources and plan needed to become a dominant sector player," Cohen said in a public letter to GameStop's board of directors in November, blasting the stock's dismal performance at the time-it was down 85% over the prior five years. According to regulatory filings, Cohen-the founder and former CEO of Chewy, a booming e-commerce firm focused on pet supplies–spent about $76 million buying up more than 9 million GameStop shares at the tail-end of last year as he mounted an effort to restructure the Grapevine, Texas-based firm.