The empty wave of attacks is staged to "counter-snipe": Beyond Meat (BYND.US) shorts are not afraid to bet on the inevitable collapse of the meme craze.

Plant-based protein producer Beyond Meat (BYND.US) saw its stock price surge over 1300% in four days, reaching a 14-month high during Wednesday's trading, triggering intense battles between short sellers. According to data from S3 Partners LLC, this sudden surge resulted in short sellers' losses increasing by over $120 million from the previous week's low point, with total losses for the year exceeding $45 million - and just before retail investors drove the rebound, short sellers had nearly $80 million in profits on their books for 2025. The rapid rise in stock price from historic lows caused some short sellers to urgently close their positions to limit losses. The stock dropped 1.1% on Wednesday, having surged 112% intraday, and fell over 10% to $3.20 after hours. Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners, pointed out that current short sellers are reacting in two ways: some are rushing to cover their short positions, while others are increasing their short positions anticipating an inevitable pullback due to the high and fast increase in stock price. Despite a recent decrease in the percentage of short interest relative to float in the past few trading days, short interest has increased by over 5 million shares in the past 30 days, highlighting the growing divide among investors. The surge began last Friday and continued on Monday. On the news front, trader Demitri Semenikhin heavily promoted the stock on social media, reminiscent of Keith Gill (known as Roaring Kitty) pushing the GameStop Corp. Class A (GME.US) stock during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, Walmart Inc. announced that it would expand the availability of Beyond Meat products to over 2,000 stores, further boosting the stock price. Dusaniwsky likened the current situation to the GameStop Corp. Class A event: some short sellers are being squeezed out, while others are doubling down on their short positions due to the fast and high increase in stock price. This meme stock frenzy, driven by retail investor attention, once again demonstrates the extreme volatility of struggling company stocks under the influx of short-term speculative funds, with the divergence in short interest operations highlighting the ongoing disagreements in the market regarding overvalued assets.