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. In announcing the Litecoin purchase, MEI Pharma became just the latest firm to exploit a popular stock price hack: When a public company adds crypto to its balance sheet, traders have responded by buying up shares and boosting the firm’s value well beyond the cost of the purchase.

What was unexpected, however, was that MEI Pharma’s stock price almost doubled in the day

See Full Page