DRS - Direct Registration System

• Cede & Co., a private company and partner of the DTC, is the registered owner of the majority of all issued shares of publicly traded companies in the United States
  • As of 1998, Cede & Co. was the registered owner of 83% of the shares of all New York Stock Exchange-listed companies and 70% of the shares included in the Nasdaq Stock Market
    • Since 1998, this ownership percentage has not been publicly released again
  • When shares of a company are purchased at a stock broker, the buyer becomes a beneficially owner of shares but holds only share entitlements. The registered holder of those shares is Cede & Co.
  • Due to lack of transparency by Cede & Co. and the DTC, the number of share entitlements that exist among stock brokers and other market participants cannot be verified
• DRS is an acronym for Direct Registration System
  • DRS is a mechanism that enables investors to own and hold shares registered in their own name on the issuing company's shareholder register, making the shareholder known to the company
  • Moving shares to DRS removes Cede & Co's registered ownership of those shares, making the investor the registered owner
  • Holding shares in DRS form is the only way to have both ownership and possession of electronically-held shares
• A shareholder register (sometimes referred to as a ledger) is a record of who owns a company's shares, and is typically maintained by a transfer agent
  • GameStop's transfer agent is Computershare
• A significant number of committed GME shareholders have registered their shares
  • Approximately 175,000 individuals have registered their shares of GME
  • Approximately 14% of all issued shares of GME are held in DRS form, represeting a significant portion of GME ownership

Holding shares in DRS form is the only way to have both ownership and possession of your shares, with no intermediary.

Shares held in brokerage accounts are beneficially owned, and subject to the terms and conditions of the brokerage. Furthermore, in any type of situation where a broker becomes insolvent, an investor's access to their shares in that brokerage account would be subject to the bankruptcy proceedings. While SIPC insurance does provide some protection, it does not provide full coverage of assets.

Please visit WhyDRS.org for more information about DRS

Owning directly registered shares of GME can be achieved mainly in 2 different ways. Each method is a 2-step process.

1. An investor purchases shares of GME at a stock broker, for example Fidelity or IBKR
2. The investor requests to the broker to transfer the shares to DRS

1. An investor purchases shares of GME from GameStop's transfer agent Computershare
2. The investor requests to Computershare to transfer their shares from Computershare's plan into DRS

Please visit DRSGME.org for more information about registering shares of GME

• All shares held with GameStop's transfer agent Computershare are considered "registered", which means that the individual investor is listed by name on the issuer's (GameStop's) stock register (also referred to as the "ledger") and the investor is therefore known to the company.
• However, of registered shares, DRS is the only form that provides both ownership and possession of shares
• Holding shares in Computershare's Direct Stock Purchase Plan (DSPP) provides registered ownership but not possession of shares

• In the aftermath of the GME sneeze of January 2021, GME investors began to search for information to help make sense of what really happened and how the market actually functions
• Gathering largely on Reddit, several communities emerged, for example Superstonk, where GME was the central topic of conversation
• Through a series of discoveries and conversations, GME investors eventually learned that DRS was the only way that an investor can obtain real ownership of the shares they paid for by putting the registered ownership of the shares in their own name
• GME shareholders advocating for DRS have faced resistance and censorship on Reddit

• Mainstream financial media is not incentivized to ever discuss DRS
• The incentive is much greater to never validate the existence and purpose of DRS
• Common finance tools that are supposed to provide ownership information of publicly traded stocks such as GME do not publish any information about DRS, despite the significant percentage of all GME shares that are directly registered