GameStop short-seller Melvin Capital suffered a 49% loss in the 1st-quarter after being hit by the Reddit-fanned trading frenzy

• Gabe Plotkin's Melvin Capital extended its first-quarter losses to 49%.
• Melvin declined 53% in January, reversed some of that loss with a 22% gain in February, but slid 7% again in March.
• Reddit traders hammered the hedge fund's short positions against GameStop earlier this year.

Melvin Capital, the hedge fund that dug itself into a hole during the GameStop saga, extended its first-quarter losses to 49%.

The firm, founded by portfolio manager Gabe Plotkin, saw a 53% decline in January, reversed some of that loss by gaining 22% in February, but slid another 7% in March, Insider's Bradley Saacks reported on Friday.

Melvin was among a handful of short-sellers that got torched by the Wall Street Bets army that bid up GameStop's shares, leading to massive losses for those that wagered bearish bets against the video-game retailer.

"51% to go," a Wall Street Bets user posted on Reddit in response to Melvin's first-quarter decline.

The fund closed its short position against GameStop on January 27. It started out this year with $12.5 billion in assets under management, but ended January with about $8 billion. Steve Cohen's Point 72 and Ken Griffin's Citadel injected a $2.75 billion investment in Melvin to support its battle against the Reddit army.

Plotkin racked up about $860 million through 2020 after his firm returned 53%, but January's deep decline left him with an estimated personal loss of $460 million, Bloomberg reported.

Plotkin was grilled before a congressional panel in February, where he defended his short position and said it was never part of an effort to "artificially depress, or manipulate downward, the price of a stock."

A spokesperson for Melvin declined to comment.