“Don’t Call It a Comeback”: MEME ETF Rises From the Dead
Roundhill Investments brings back its Meme Stock ETF, this time with an active twist and a bold bet on the lasting influence of retail traders.

No more "late to the party", or late night scrolling reddit to find the next meme stock.
Roundhill Investments has relaunched its Meme Stock ETF under the ticker MEME, capitalizing on a fresh wave of individual investor enthusiasm that's reshaping Wall Street. Debuting on October 8, 2025, this revamped fund arrives amid a structural shift where retail traders now command 15-20% of daily U.S. stock trading volume, a far cry from pre-pandemic norms and a testament to the democratization of finance that's here to stay. Unlike its 2021 predecessor, which fizzled out and was liquidated in December 2023 after peaking at a modest $3 million in assets, the new MEME ETF ditches passive indexing for active management, promising nimbler navigation through the volatile world of social media-fueled stocks.
Roundhill's CEO, Dave Mazza, didn't mince words in his October 9, 2025, appearance on Yahoo Finance's Market Catalysts with anchor Julie Hyman, framing the relaunch as a savvy embrace of retail investors as a "permanent force" in the markets rather than a fleeting fad. He highlighted lessons from the original fund's short-lived run, noting that its rigid, index-based approach often led to "corner solutions", stocks that ticked boxes like high short interest but lacked the genuine online buzz that defines true meme darlings. Now, the ETF employs a more dynamic strategy: screening a broad universe of equities for metrics like implied volatility, then layering on qualitative insights from social sentiment and trending discussions to curate holdings. With weekly rebalancing at minimum, it's designed to pounce on rapid rallies, though skeptics might quip that such agility could just as easily amplify the inevitable wipeouts.
