Four short reports, a market that barely moved, and BMF is back
Weekly Wrap Up: Sunday, August 30, 2026
Four investigations this week, in four sectors with little in common: a microcap event producer, a closed end fund, a cancer biotech and a crypto treasury company. The indices barely moved, all three finishing within half a point of where they started. Two of the four reports landed on Friday. The figure to hold onto is 21.4%, and it went the wrong way.
The Market and the Shorts
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Dow (DIA), S&P 500 (SPY), Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), from the August 21 close to the August 28 close. The names shorted this week rose 0.6% on average by Friday's close, each measured from its close the day before the report, and a rise there is a loss for the short side, which is why it is the one number in red. Across all open Activ8 shorts, now 198 names, 61.1% fell and the median move was -1.9%.
The Tape
| Investigator | Target | Sector | Day of report |
Since report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMF Reports | SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. SLS |
Healthcare | -13.1% | -13.1% |
| Shortfinder | DeFi Development Corp. DFDV |
Financial Services | -5.7% | -5.7% |
| Hunterbrook Media | Guggenheim Strategic Opportunities Fund GOF |
Financial Services | +0.6% | -0.2% |
| Fugazi Research | TEN Holdings, Inc. Common Stock XHLD |
Communication Services | -0.1% | +21.4% |
Performance since report, close to close
Measured from the close the day before each report to August 28. Bars are scaled to the largest move. The grey bar is the median first week across 1,366 reports since 2008.
| SLS |
|
-13.1% | |
| DFDV |
|
-5.7% | |
| Median |
|
-4.7% | |
| GOF |
|
-0.2% | |
| XHLD |
|
+21.4% |
Why it matters. The week's biggest move went the wrong way. TEN Holdings closed Friday 21.4% above where it stood the night before Fugazi Research published, and because that report landed on Monday, its five trading days are the only ones this week that have run. Only 54 of the 1,366 first weeks on record have gone better for the target. Set against a firm whose own median first week is -25.1%, it is an outlier twice over. The three later reports cannot be scored yet. And this was not four separate stories: The Bear Cave published on Guggenheim on August 20, six days before Hunterbrook did.
The liability side
Every report this week argues the market priced one number and skipped the one underneath it. Fugazi Research reads TEN Holdings' rally against a $19.5 million loss on $3.1 million of revenue, funded by dilution rather than by the business. Shortfinder nets $215 million of liabilities against DeFi Development's SOL treasury and finds about $1.54 of equity behind a $5.28 share. BMF Reports weighs SELLAS's near $3 billion valuation against a foundational dataset of ten patients. Hunterbrook asks the quietest version of the question: what an insurer's assets are standing behind, and who sits on the other side of them.
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Explore the Dashboard →Betting on Takedown, picked up
Two publications followed our takedown investigation this week, one from inside the gambling industry and one from inside copyright enforcement.
iGaming Business took the findings to the companies named in them. 1xBet strategic adviser Simon Westbury said the operator "had no involvement in or knowledge of that notice." A Sportradar spokesperson said the company "did not file or commission the notice in question and has never sought the removal of such press coverage from search results," adding that it has "no relationship with, or knowledge of, anyone filing copyright takedown notices under the name Alex Gramm."
Plagiarism Today, which covers copyright rather than markets, carried the story as one of its three daily items, noting that the name on the filings has been tied to similar notices while who that person is, and what affiliation they have, remains unclear.
The original investigation traced at least 12 takedown notices under that name, covering 84 URLs across roughly 68 domains, of which 10 appeared to serve 1xBet's interests. As the article said then, and as both pickups quoted: we have no evidence that 1xBet or Sportradar filed, commissioned or knew about the notice, and we do not allege it. What we can document is what the filings did.
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Betting on Takedown A copyright law written to stop piracy was used to pull press coverage of short seller research out of Google. We traced the filing history behind it. |
The Campaigns
| Metric | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Close (Day Before) | $7.66 | — |
| Low (Report Date) | $7.41 | -3.3% |
| Close (Report Date) | $7.65 | -0.1% |
| Close (End of Week) | $9.30 | +21.4% |
TEN Holdings runs virtual and hybrid event production through its Xyvid Pro and TEN Pro platforms, with 25 staff and about $3.1 million of FY2025 revenue. Fugazi Research alleges it is a pump and dump that has now run twice, underwritten by a firm Bloomberg identified among those behind "apparent pump-and-dump deals."
Key Points
- $19.5 million net loss on $3.1 million of FY2025 revenue, a loss more than six times the revenue that produced it, with one customer accounting for 66.7% of that revenue.
- The stock closed at $0.80 on August 5, 2026 and traded above $8 within two weeks on no disclosed business development, a sequence Fugazi Research says mirrors two prior Bancroft-underwritten IPOs that Nasdaq halted for suspected manipulation.
- The company's own Board concluded that IPO-day contracts "lacked economic substance and any direct benefit to the Company," according to the report, which also cites active DOJ grand jury and SEC subpoenas.
In context. Fugazi Research's report #17 of 2026 and #25 since 2025, against a median first week of -25.1% across 24 scored reports. This one is 4 day(s) old, so it has no first week to score yet. Communication Services is the thinnest sector on the board this year, 4 reports out of 168.
Read the Full Report Summary →
| Metric | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Close (Day Before) | $9.63 | — |
| Low (Report Date) | $9.53 | -1.0% |
| Close (Report Date) | $9.69 | +0.6% |
| Close (End of Week) | $9.61 | -0.2% |
Hunterbrook Media's target is EquiTrust Life Insurance, an unlisted Iowa annuity writer; the card carries GOF because Hunterbrook disclosed a short in the fund. It reports EquiTrust booked more than $100 million with a fund run by its own then-owner and then-chief executive as an unaffiliated investment, and stresses no wrongdoing has been established.
Key Points
- $100.5 million went into JLC Infrastructure, a fund whose principals included EquiTrust's then-owner Magic Johnson and then-CEO Eric Holoman, and was reported as an unaffiliated investment, according to Hunterbrook.
- A separate $350 million of debt issued by Mark Walter's American Media Productions was also reported as unaffiliated, though Hunterbrook notes that loan predates Johnson's ownership of the insurer.
- Former insurance regulator Tom Gober told Hunterbrook that misrepresenting affiliation is "serious business," because regulators rely on affiliated disclosures to judge whether a deal is fair and reasonable.
In context. Hunterbrook Media's report #9 of 2026 and #32 since 2024, against a median first week of -1.5% across 31 scored reports. This one is 2 day(s) old, so it has no first week to score yet. Financial Services has drawn 20 of the year's 168 reports, from 14 different investigators.
Read the Full Report Summary →
| Metric | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Close (Day Before) | $15.21 | — |
| Low (Report Date) | $13.15 | -13.5% |
| Close (Report Date) | $13.21 | -13.1% |
| Close (End of Week) | $13.21 | -13.1% |
SELLAS Life Sciences is a clinical-stage biotech with no approved product, no revenue and 13 employees, carrying a market value near $3 billion on galinpepimut-S, a cancer immunotherapy in the blinded Phase 3 REGAL trial. BMF Reports argues investors have read the trial's slow event clock as proof that it is working.
Key Points
- The foundational AML dataset behind galinpepimut-S covers 10 selected patients against 15 non-randomized historical controls, according to BMF Reports.
- BMF Reports reconstructs REGAL's statistical power at roughly 51%, against the 90% the trial's published assumptions claim.
- The report estimates about 76% downside, to roughly $3.50 a share, on a clean REGAL failure, and notes insider ownership near 1.3% alongside a $150 million ATM facility.
In context. BMF Reports's report #2 of 2026 and #19 since 2025, against a median first week of -3.2% across 18 scored reports. This one is 0 day(s) old, so it has no first week to score yet. Healthcare is the year's busiest sector, 27 reports out of 168.
Read the Full Report Summary →
| Metric | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Close (Day Before) | $5.28 | — |
| Low (Report Date) | $4.93 | -6.6% |
| Close (Report Date) | $4.98 | -5.7% |
| Close (End of Week) | $4.98 | -5.7% |
DeFi Development Corp holds a treasury of about 2.33 million SOL tokens, which it has used as the basis for a rally that doubled the stock in seventeen sessions. Shortfinder argues that stripping the company's liabilities out of that treasury leaves far less equity than the market is paying for.
Key Points
- Netting $215 million of liabilities against the SOL treasury leaves equity worth about $1.54 a share, against a $5.28 market price, according to Shortfinder.
- The company holds $4.3 million of cash and has a $199 million at-the-market equity facility that remains unused.
- Shortfinder identifies no datable catalyst, arguing the gap closes as the treasury narrative fades rather than on any scheduled event.
In context. Shortfinder's report #22 of 2026 and #45 since 2022, against a median first week of -1.0% across 43 scored reports. This one is 0 day(s) old, so it has no first week to score yet. Financial Services accounts for 20 of the year's 168 reports.
Read the Full Report Summary →
Campaign Updates
- Viceroy Research pressed its case against Blue Moon Metals on two fronts, asking the European Commission to reassess the Nussir copper project's Strategic Project status and filing freedom of information requests with two Norwegian regulators, while a separate note argues the Springer tungsten project's valuation rests on a price assumption more than five times the one used in the project's own 2012 study.
The Borrow
Short selling, explained. One mechanic a week.
What actually makes a short sale legal?
Short selling is legal, and heavily specified. Most of it sits in Regulation SHO, in force since 2005, which rests on three obligations. Your broker has to locate borrowable shares before the trade goes through, which is what makes naked shorting illegal rather than merely frowned upon. If those shares then fail to deliver by T+2, the broker must buy them in the open market and close the position, whether or not you want out. And exchanges publish a threshold list of names with persistent fails, where that clock runs faster still.
Layered on top is Rule 201, the alternative uptick rule. Once a stock falls 10% from its previous close, shorts in it can only execute above the national best bid, for the rest of that session and all of the next. You cannot hit the bid on the way down. Short sale circuit breakers enforce this automatically, stock by stock rather than market wide.
The newest piece is Rule 10c-1, phasing in from 2025, which makes securities lenders report loan rates and volumes to FINRA. Borrow data that used to reach you only through a broker's locate screen is becoming something you can check for yourself.
Our guide walks through all of it, including what institutions have to disclose about their own short positions, and when.
Regulations and restrictions in short selling →
Coming next week
A new Behind the Bear profile. The next instalment of our interview series with the people doing this work publishes next week.
The August monthly report. Every activist short campaign published in August, scored against its target: total reports, average impact and success rate, with the breakdowns by exchange, country, industry, market cap and research firm.
Around the Short World
The SEC wants public companies to say less, less often - Two proposed rule changes would thin out how fully and how frequently companies report, and short sellers build their cases from disclosure. Source: The New York Times
A twice-renamed biotech expands its naked shorting suit - Lunai Bioworks added six broker-dealers to its complaint, having drawn three short reports since 2019 under two earlier names, Enochian Biosciences and then Renovaro. Source: PR Newswire
The disclosure short sellers rewrote after Andrew Left - Muddy Waters' Carson Block calls it the Left Disclosure: language stating a firm may begin covering its position as soon as a report publishes. Source: Institutional Investor
