Many others had done it, but nobody quite as blatantly as beverage maker Long Island Iced Tea Corp, which in late December, bizarrely but profitably changing its name to Long Blockchain Corp, which sent its shares soaring by 500%.
In an ironic twist, we previewed LTEA’s hilarious “pivot” just one day earlier when – discussing a similar surge in microcap stock Net Element – we said:
Now that it is abundantly clear that for a stock to explode higher, all that is necessary – and sufficient – is a press release mentioning the company’s name and throwing in the word “blockchain” in the same sentence (see Riot Blockchain and LongFin Corp), other public microcaps have decided that if that’s all it takes, then by all means they will gladly take investors’ money.
Indeed, as the value of Bitcoin has skyrocketed in recent months, companies previously focused on making fitness apparel, bras, cigars and beverages (and many other unrelated things) have rebranded themselves as virtual currency or blockchain companies of one sort or another. In this light, what Long Island Ice Tea Blockchain did was the culmination of what to many is clear mania behavior, as many obscure companies have pivoted operations or simply changed their names to cash-in on the cryptocurrency wave, a trend reminiscent of the dotcom boom. As profiled previously, a barrage of companies have seen their shares sky-rocket, largely on words such as “crypto” or “blockchain” in their names.
And investors cheered them on, pushing their stock prices up, forcing countless microcaps to ride the “Blockchain train”
Then, this week it was Kodak’s turn, which seeking to capitalize on the euphoria, announced the launch of Kodakcoin, “a photocentric cryptocurrency to empower photographers and agencies to take greater control in image rights management.”
It didn’t really make much sense, but it was enough for investors to send the price of KODK stock soaring over 300% two days after the announcement – which means investors had a full day to digest the news and still keep buying.
And now, none other than Jeff Gundlach, who earlier this week went out on a limb and predicted that the high for bitcoin is in, and then went out on an even bigger limb predicting that “if you short bitcoin today, you’ll make money.”
Or maybe not, because as even Gundlach admitted on twitter moments ago, the blockchain euphoria appears nowhere close to ending.
“Kodak rose >250% on “Blockchain pivot”! I should change my firm’s name to “DoubleBlockchain” and the bid would go up double 250% or 5 times! Gundlach tweeted.
Kodak rose >250% on “Blockchain pivot”! I should change my firm’s name to “DoubleBlockchain” and the bid would go up double 250% or 5 times!
— Jeffrey Gundlach (@TruthGundlach) January 11, 2018
Hardly something a person would say if the euphoria wave was anywhere close to coming to an end.
And in an oddly defensive tweet to follow up, Gundlach then address Jim Cramer, asking him “what again was my call on Bitcoin when I was on your network December 13?”
Hey, Jim Cramer, what again was my call on Bitcoin when I was on your network December 13?
— Jeffrey Gundlach (@TruthGundlach) January 11, 2018
We’ll assume it was to buy.
And yes, for now shorting bitcoin may have proven profitable thanks to the latest fireworks out of South Korea, but every single time the crypto space has tumbled, it has only rebounded that much higher. Will this time be different, and will Gundlach’s bitcoin call be as prescient as his forecast that Trump will be the next president.
For the answer, keep an eye on events in South Korea and Japan in the coming days: the two countries that can make or break the entire $700 billion cryptospace with the flip of a switch.
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