Beyond Meat Rockets 1,200% in a Classic Short Squeeze
By @sharedot · · 7 pages
- Stock Market
- Beyond Meat
- Short Squeeze
- Meme Stock
A Reddit trader's $3 million bet and a meme ETF addition sent Beyond Meat from 52 cents to $8.70, even as its revenue kept shrinking.
From 52 cents to $8.70 in four sessions
Beyond Meat closed at a record low of 52 cents on October 16, 2025, after a year of shareholder dilution. By the morning of October 22, the stock had touched roughly $8.70 — a gain of more than 1,200% in four trading sessions, per Reuters and Fox Business reporting cited by Startup Fortune.
Shares leaped 146% the day Walmart news broke, then another 43% on top of that. It was by nearly every measure the sharpest run in the company's history, all while the business behind it reported a 19.7% year-over-year revenue decline to $61.6 million for the quarter.
The Reddit bet that lit the fuse
The spark came from Demitri Semenikhin, a Dubai-based day trader who posts as Capybara Stocks. According to Startup Fortune, he published a Reddit post and video titled "Why I've purchased 4% of Beyond Meat Stock," laying out a roughly $3 million position — about 4% of the float.
His thesis was simple: a debt-for-equity swap completed October 17 had sold new shares near $3 to repay debt, gutting the near-term bankruptcy risk crushing the stock. Retail traders bought the argument, and Reuters reported his stake grew to roughly $10 million even as he sold down on the way up.
MEME ETF and a 60–80% short base
The mechanics then took over. Startup Fortune reports Roundhill Investments added Beyond Meat to its meme-stock ETF, ticker MEME, on the Monday of that week, making it the fund's largest holding at more than 10% weight — drawing in buyers who trade the ETF rather than the thesis.
Ortex pegged short interest at 60% to 80% of the free float heading into the rally, leaving sellers no room to hide: every leg up forced covering, which pushed the price higher still. That reflexive loop is precisely what drove GameStop and AMC in 2021.
The Walmart deal gave it a fundamental hook
Unlike a pure squeeze, Beyond Meat had real news to point to.
On October 21 the company announced expansion to more than 2,000 Walmart stores nationwide, adding the Beyond Burger 6-Pack alongside Beyond Chicken pieces and Beyond Steak Korean BBQ-Style, per the company announcement and TechCrunch reporting cited by Startup Fortune.
The six-pack was priced lower to reach households squeezed by grocery inflation, and Beyond Meat said it topped a national taste-test survey against comparable beef burgers. A genuine shelf-space win gave retail traders the cover story they wanted.
Squeeze real, turnaround not
None of it lasted. Startup Fortune reports the stock gave back more than half its gains by Wednesday afternoon, closing near $3.58 after trading as high as $8.70, on record options volume and more than 2 billion shares traded — one of the market's most active names per Reuters.
Analyst coverage carried zero buy ratings. Gross margin collapsed to 2.3% from 13.1% a year earlier, and convertible noteholders emerged owning roughly 81% of shares.
By 2026 the stock was back in the sub-dollar range, down roughly 27% on the year — a reminder that shorts get caught in these traps, as Palantir shorts learned too when Stocktwits reported $3 billion in single-session paper losses on its 30% surge.