MEI Pharma purchased $100 million of Litecoin for its treasury, and its share price rose from $3 to a high of $7. The stock nearly doubled in the days before the purchase announcement despite no SEC filings, press releases, or social media chatter. Several other small public companies showed similar pre-announcement stock pops ahead of crypto-balance-sheet moves. Those unexplained price jumps have prompted suspicion of insiders front-running announcements. Some company spokespeople declined to comment, and others did not respond to requests for comment.
In mid-July, the stock for the cancer drug developer MEI Pharma skyrocketed. It wasn't because the small company, first listed on the Nasdaq in 2003, had discovered a blockbuster cancer cure. Rather, MEI Pharma's soaring share price coincided with the company's decision to buy up $100 million of the cryptocurrency Litecoin for its treasury. The pop in price, which saw shares go from $3 to a high of $7, wasn't surprising.
What was unexpected, however, was that MEI Pharma's stock price almost doubled in the days before the announcement became public—despite there being no material updates filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, no press releases, and barely any chatter on social media. MEI Pharma is not the only firm that has recently experienced an unusual pop in its stock right before announcing a crypto-buying strategy.
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