Some small Nasdaq-listed companies claiming they’ll buy large amounts of XRP or Solana (SOL) might be pulling off pump-and-dump schemes, according to VanEck’s Head of Digital Assets, Matthew Sigel.
These companies often have very low market values but say they plan to raise hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars to buy crypto. However, Sigel said, “Insider pump and dump attempts, many of them. If the market cap is de minimus and there is no disclosure of new anchor investors, I assume it’s a scam.”
For instance, a Singapore-based Trident Digital Tech announced on June 12 that it would try to raise up to $500 million to create a large XRP treasury. It said it will establish this as one of the world’s first large-scale corporate XRP Treasuries and plans to appoint Chaince Securities LLC as the strategic advisor.
When this was announced, the company’s shares were trading for less than 40 cents, and its market value was around $16 million, according to Yahoo Finance. Earlier this month, Classover Holdings Inc., a small education tech company, also announced plans to raise $500 million to build a Solana treasury. Its shares trade for under $4, and its market cap is under $100 million.
Around the same time, Webus International, a China-based company in the automotive and hospitality space, said it wanted to create a $300 million XRP treasury. Webus also trades under $3 a share and has a market cap below $100 million.
One of the biggest announcements came from DeFi Development Corp., which said it made a deal to sell up to $5 billion in shares to fund a Solana treasury. The buyer, RK Capital Management, is based in Denver and describes itself on LinkedIn as managing $500 million in small-cap assets.
DeFi Dev’s stock has soared recently. It jumped from a $7 million market cap in March to about $379 million in June, according to Yahoo Finance. The company said in a report, “DeFi Dev Corp. remains laser-focused on executing our Solana treasury strategy.”
Sigel was one of the first to raise talks about these kinds of announcements. Last month, he posted on X about a $3 million market cap company planning to buy $800 million in BTC and TRUMP coin. He blurred out the ticker, saying such claims didn’t deserve attention.
“When a $3 million market cap US-listed penny stock with all Chinese management announces plans to buy $800M of BTC & TRUMP coin, you don’t post the ticker.” He said.
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