Square Inc. Stock Surged On Recycled News of Bitcoin Partnership

Square Inc. (SQ) stock soared after old news that it plans to test integration of bitcoin payments on its platform mysteriously got hyped in the media yesterday amid rising bitcoin prices.

Investopedia reported the original news back in November 2017.

Square Inc. shares closed Monday at $50.42, up 9.6%, on unusually high trading volume of 30.6 million shares. Average daily volume is 15.7 million.

The brouhaha erupted yesterday after an obscure website in Latvia called Cryptona published a report claiming Square is “possibly testing an integration with Bitcoin."

Immediately afterward, shares of the mobile payments company rocketed to a record high of $50.50 before closing at $50.42 a share. That's a 200% spike over the past 12 months.

Image source: FactSet

The recycled Cryptona story was written by Oladapo Olagoke and did not contain any new information. Bloomberg contacted Olagoke, who did not respond to a message seeking comment.

SEC Cracks Down on Deceitful Marketing

This isn't the first time a company's stock has soared following news that it had entered the cryptocurrency market.

In December 2017, a beverage company called Long Island Iced Tea abruptly changed its name to Long Blockchain, and its stock shot up 280%.

Two months later, the Nasdaq moved to delist Long Blockchain amid suspicion that it had changed its name to artificially boost its stock price. (See more: Nasdaq: Long Blockchain Deceived Investors With Bogus Name Change.)

As a result of these types of shenanigans, the SEC announced it will investigate companies that deceive investors by misusing the name "blockchain" simply to pump up their stock prices. (See more: SEC May Crack Down on Firms Misusing 'Blockchain' Name.)

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