This ‘Meme Stock ETF’ Is Back. It Could Be a Warning Sign for the Market’s Rally.

Opendoor stock is up about 480% so far this year. (Courtesy of Opendoor)

Key Points

• Roundhill Investments relaunched a meme stock ETF, with Opendoor Technologies as its top holding, about two years after closing its predecessor.
• Retail investors now account for nearly 21% of total trading volume, a decrease from 25% in 2020-2021 but more than double 2010 levels.
• The new meme stock ETF includes high-tech companies like Plug Power, up 76%, and Rigetti Computing, which has surged nearly 6,000%.

A month ago, Opendoor Technologies Chairman Keith Rabois brushed off the idea that shares of the online homebuying company were rising on hype alone. “It’s not a meme stock,” Rabois said in an interview with CNBC.

One of the country’s best-known fund managers would beg to differ.

Roundhill Investments resurrected an exchange-traded fund comprised entirely of meme stocks on Wednesday. Opendoor is the top holding. Less than two years after liquidating its original Roundhill Meme Stock ETF , the firm is newly confident that retail enthusiasm can move markets.

“Meme stocks started as a rebellion but have grown into a revolution,” said Roundhill CEO Dave Mazza. “Retail investors have proven that they are here to stay as a permanent force in the market.”

It’s tough to argue with that assessment. Retail investors now make up nearly 21% of total trading volume, according to a June report from Jefferies. That is down from a peak of roughly 25% during the first meme-stock craze in 2020 and 2021, but still more than double 2010 levels.

At Opendoor, retail traders on social media who called themselves the Open Army successfully pleaded for the ouster of former CEO Carrie Wheeler and the return of Rabois, who co-founded the company. The stock is up around 480% this year.

The meme trade has moved on from well-known but struggling brands like GameStop and AMC Entertainment, however. Instead, high-tech companies yet to turn consistent profits dominate Roundhill’s relaunched ETF.

It is unclear whether that theme will resonate more with investors than the original Meme Stock ETF, which presaged a drawdown in the stock market and shuttered in late 2023 because of a lack of interest among day traders. The firm pitched the new fund Wednesday as a way to “ride retail enthusiasm, or as a hedge against a short book.”

Meme-stock buyers have often looked to boost the prices of heavily shorted stocks in order to trigger so-called short squeezes, when people who have bet against the shares have to buy the stock to cover their losses. Holding the meme-stock ETF could reduce the risk of selling stocks short.

Fuel-cell makers Plug Power and Bloom Energy are among the top 10 holdings. Neither company has posted a net profit over a fiscal year, but there are genuine reasons for optimism. President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress kept hydrogen subsidies in place even while slashing other aid for clean energy earlier this year, raising hopes that fuel cells could help meet surging energy demand.

Plug stock is up 76% in 2025, while Bloom—a play on data centers’ demand for power—has soared nearly 300%.

Quantum-computing companies like Rigetti Computing and IonQ also made the cut, and it’s easy to see why. The unprofitable Rigetti, for instance, has surged nearly 6,000% over the last 12 months.

But quantum computing, a technology that can theoretically solve problems too complex for traditional computers, may well have transformative real-world use cases. Investors are buying into the hype, but they are also betting on something realer than, say, the idea that GameStop could pull off a comeback as shoppers worried by the pandemic bought their videogames online in 2021.

It’s unlikely most of these companies would call themselves meme stocks, but ETF managers aren’t required to get consent before bundling stocks into a fund together. Plus, the “meme stock” label can be a good omen for some stocks if Roundhill’s old ETF is anything to go by.

GameStop and AMC were among the holdings in that fund, but so too were companies with real staying power like Tesla, Palantir Technologies, and Palo Alto Networks. The market’s newest meme stocks will hope to replicate their success.

“I am not a stock analyst, so I am going to be bad at commenting on this,” Opendoor CEO Kaz Nejatian said of the ETF. “I build products for a living and I really like what we are building at Opendoor.”

Other companies in the fund didn’t immediately respond to Barron’s requests for comment.

At the same time, the arrival of another meme stock ETF may be a warning sign for the broader stock market. In December 2021, the last time Roundhill launched the ETF, the Nasdaq Composite was at its peak before the 2022 bear market, noted BTIG analyst Jonathan Krinsky.

“History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes and this is another sign of some exuberance right now,” Krinsky said.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com