GameStop short-seller Melvin Capital lost 53% this month after the Reddit-fueled frenzy sent shares soaring

• Melvin Capitol lost 53% in January, sources told Insider. The Wall Street Journal first reported the loss.
• The fund ended the month with more than $8 billion in assets under management.
• Melvin Capital was among the high-profile hedge funds that got torched after GameStop shares skyrocketed.
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Melvin Capital Management lost over half its assets after GameStop burned short-selling funds this month.

The hedge fund, which was at the heart of the GameStop frenzy, lost 53% in January, sources close to the fund told Insider. The Wall Street Journal first reported the loss. 

Melvin Capital, founded by star portfolio manager Gabe Plotkin, started the year with $12.5 billion in assets and ended the month with more than $8 billion in assets under management after current investors committed additional capital, the source said. Billionaire investors Steve Cohen and Ken Griffin invested $2.75 billion into the hedge fund earlier this week.

Read more: How hedge funds are tracking Reddit posts to protect their portfolios after the Wall Street Bets crowd helped tank Melvin Capital’s short positions

Melvin Capital, along with high-profile hedge funds Citron Research and Point72, got torched after GameStop shares skyrocketed this month, fueled by Redditors using trading app Robinhood.

Individual retail investors, including members of the popular Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets, attempted to burn short-sellers of GameStop by buying up shares and sending the stock surging as much as 2,000% month-to-date.  Short-sellers lost about $19 billion on GameStop this year, according to figures from data provider Ortex.

Read more: Hedge fund phenom Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital has been stung by the AMC short bet caught up in Reddit’s trading frenzy

Melvin closed its short position on GameStop stock on January 27.

New and existing clients signed up to invest additional funds into Melvin Capital on February 1, the Journal reported, but the firm would not disclose how much.

Citron Research also closed its short position on GameStop after covering a 100% loss. Citron Research managing partner Andrew Left, a target for impassioned investors on Wall Street Bets, announced the firm would stop publishing “short reports.” 

The frenzy surrounding GameStop shares turned into a “populist movement,” Insider’s Ben Winck reported, and garnered responses from progressive lawmakers calling for tighter market regulation. 

–Insider’s Alex Morrell contributed to this report