Keith Gill's GameStop Congressional Testimony ('I am not a cat')

On February 18, 2021, Keith Patrick Gill testified before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Representative Maxine Waters, at a virtual hearing titled 'Game Stopped? Who Wins and Loses When Short Sellers, Social Media, and Retail Investors Collide' (official record CHRG-117hhrg43966). Gill, who posted on Reddit's r/wallstreetbets as 'DeepFuckingValue' and on YouTube as 'Roaring Kitty,' opened with the line that became the hearing's most quoted moment: 'A few things I am not: I am not a cat. I am not an institutional investor. Nor am I a hedge fund.' He closed his remarks with 'In short, I like the stock.' The 'cat' line referenced the cat imagery and red headband familiar from his videos.

In his written and oral testimony, Gill maintained that he was an individual investor acting on genuine analysis, that he did not solicit or coordinate others' trades, and that his enthusiasm for GameStop was sincere. He called the suggestion that he manipulated the market 'preposterous,' stating that his posts 'did not cause the movement of billions of dollars into GameStop shares.' As sworn testimony, these are Gill's statements of position rather than adjudicated findings.

The testimony was directly relevant to the parallel civil litigation. The Iovin securities-fraud class action had been filed just two days earlier, on February 16, 2021, and it rested on the theory that Gill had assumed a false 'everyman' persona to manipulate the market. His congressional testimony amounted to a public articulation of the defense to that and later suits: sincere conviction, no coordination, no concealed scheme.

Gill appeared alongside a panel of financial-industry figures, including Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, Melvin Capital CEO Gabriel Plotkin, and Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman. Lawmakers directed much of their sharper questioning at the brokerage and hedge-fund executives over the trading halt and short positions, rather than at Gill.

The hearing crystallized the public and regulatory reckoning over Reddit-driven retail trading. For the legal record, Gill's sworn denial of coordination became a touchstone reference in the securities litigation and in the broader policy debate over social-media-driven markets, payment for order flow, and the responsibilities of online market commentators.