‘I Would Feel Guilty Selling’

Capybara Stocks started posting his stock picks on Reddit as an exercise to understand his own trading methods—and create a way for others to tell him that he’s wrong.

Now, a lot more people think he’s got the right idea. Last week, the trader posted about his $3 million gamble on Beyond Meat, the stock went flying, and suddenly, random people on the internet started to look at him as a thought leader.

Beyond Meat’s surge and Capybara Stocks’ role are very reminiscent of 2021’s GameStop craze and Keith “Roaring Kitty” Gill being crowned the leader of the movement. Capybara Stocks is aware of this circulating comparison, but pushed back on it, calling it “ridiculous” as Gill is arguably the godfather of the entire meme stock trend.

That said, the Beyond Meat bull admitted that the attention became overwhelming for him.

“I was attempting to reply to everyone. In the beginning, there were tens of messages, and it was possible to do that at the same time as my main job,” he told Decrypt. But once it turned into “100 messages an hour,” he had to give up.

“It’s impossible to reply to everyone and do anything else,” he said. “You feel a sense of responsibility for those people because, for some reason, they decided to make investments based on what I say. It seems very weird to me.”

In the real world, Capybara Stocks is known as Dimitri Semenikhin, the son of two well-known Russian art collectors. The 28-year-old currently lives in Dubai and works for his family’s real estate development company. He was born in Russia, but grew up in Monaco after moving there early in his life—during which time his father served as the Honorary Consul of Kazakhstan in Monaco. Semenikhin said his first job was as a science fiction writer before founding a couple of startups, which he sold before moving into real estate.

Ironically, Semenikhin isn’t vegan, but said he tried Beyond Meat products during the Covid-19 pandemic simply out of curiosity. He said it was an “interesting thing to try,” and thinks the taste is “quite good”—although as a meat-eater, he’d rather have the real thing.

Over the past five years, Semenikhin has been investing in individual stocks. In fact, he told Decrypt that Beyond Meat isn’t even his best trade. Rather, he claims to have made more money on the Ethereum treasury company SharpLink Gaming, purchasing shares at $8 and selling them around $35—a 335% return.

“All of those positions, I did exactly the same thing as I did with BYND: I took the position and made publications on Reddit, outlining my thesis,” Semenikhin explained. “It’s surprising that, in this case, instead of being told I was wrong, this happened.”

Semenikhin told Decrypt on Thursday his initial investment in Beyond Meat was $3 million, which has swelled to $10 million. That’s a 233% return, despite BYND experiencing more than 1,000% run-up, as he said he has been selling his position throughout the rise. That said, knowing the potential profits he has missed out on has made him feel “pretty bad about himself.”

He told Decrypt that he has realized $9 million worth of profits, and has left $1 million in it, in part because he feels a responsibility to the community he accidentally formed. Decrypt asked for screenshots to verify Semenikhin’s claims, but he did not provide any verification.

“The plan is really to keep the $1 million invested for the long-term, because I think I would feel guilty selling my Beyond Meat stock,” Semenikhin explained. “Maybe it’ll die down and everyone will get out, and then I’ll kind of feel liberated from this—because I feel a bit taken hostage by the newfound responsibility to answer to all those people about their Beyond Meat investments.”

In an attempt to move beyond his ties to Beyond Meat, Semenikhin has publicly announced his investment in Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla—uploading a 20-minute YouTube video explaining his thesis.

ETHZilla’s stock jumped on Friday following the publication of the video.