Weekly Wrap Up Sunday 4/19/2026
Weekly Wrap Up: Sunday, April 19, 2026
Welcome to the Weekly Wrap Up. This was a week of structural shifts for the short selling world, alongside three activist reports that each landed very differently. The biggest headline sits upstream of any individual campaign: on Monday, the SEC approved FINRA's proposal to eliminate the $25,000 pattern day trader minimum, a rule that has governed retail intraday trading since 2001. We published a piece breaking down what the change means for activist short sellers, with the short version being that investigators should expect a different retail response environment once implementation begins. Elsewhere, Bloomberg reported that Orso Partners has built a short position against Affiliated Managers Group over its AQR-backed tax-loss harvesting strategies. On the report front, Wolfpack went after POET Technologies with a PFIC-deadline hook, Morpheus called Figure Technology a HELOC lender cosplaying as a blockchain company, and Grizzly accused Sinch of enabling a staggering share of US scam calls. Two of the three targets closed the week higher, a reminder that timing and positioning matter as much as thesis quality.
- Wolfpack Research targeted POET Technologies (POET) alleging undisclosed stock promotion, serial dilution, and a concealed PFIC status tied to an April 15 IRS deadline. Stock closed the week down 0.55%.
- Morpheus Research targeted Figure Technology Solutions (FIGR) alleging an undifferentiated HELOC lender trading at a 103% earnings premium on a blockchain narrative its own SEC filings contradict. Stock closed the week up 2.95%.
- Grizzly Research targeted Sinch AB (SINCH.ST) alleging that its Inteliquent subsidiary enables roughly 45% of Amazon, Apple, and government imposter robocalls in the US. Stock closed the week up 11.56%.
New from Activ8 This Week
On April 14, the SEC approved the elimination of the 25-year-old pattern day trader minimum. We walk through what replaces it and how short sellers should expect the post-report trading environment to shift once implementation begins.
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Wolfpack Research Short Report on POET Technologies
| Metric | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Close (Day Before) | $7.30 | - |
| Low (Report Date) | $6.57 | -10.00% |
| Close (Report Date) | $6.71 | -8.08% |
| Close (End of Week) | $7.26 | -0.55% |
Stock Price Impact. POET sold off sharply into the report's publication, trading as low as $6.57 intraday on Tuesday for a peak decline of 10.0% from the prior close of $7.30. Shares recovered to finish the day at $6.71, down 8.08%, and the rebound continued through the week, closing Friday at $7.26 for a net weekly move of just 0.55% lower. The muted sustained reaction suggests the market either discounted Wolfpack's thesis, viewed the April 15 PFIC deadline as the primary short-term catalyst, or took comfort in POET's roughly $430M cash pile. Fraud-severity reports typically see sharper end-of-week losses than what POET delivered.
About the Company. POET Technologies is a Canada-domiciled, US-listed photonic semiconductor company that develops optical engines for high-speed AI data center communications under a "fab-light" model, outsourcing manufacturing to partners in Malaysia. Its stated product, the Optical Interposer, is positioned as a bottleneck solution for hyperscaler AI infrastructure. POET carries a market cap of roughly $1.1 billion and trades on NASDAQ. The company has cycled through multiple business focuses over the past decade, from GaAs semiconductors to LIDAR, IoT, 5G, medical devices, and now AI communications, raising approximately $538M in cumulative capital against $2.3M in revenue since 2020.
Key Points from the Report.
- Wolfpack alleges POET paid $95,000 to LFG Equities, which subcontracted two YouTube influencers with 760,000 combined subscribers to promote POET as a "hidden gem" and "obvious 10X," with disclosures buried in Google Doc links and absent from mobile cuts.
- The report argues POET's own 2025 20-F numbers show 80.9% passive income, clearing the 75% PFIC threshold, with two independent tax experts calling the PFIC status "obvious," contradicting POET's stated belief that it is not a PFIC.
- According to Wolfpack, shares outstanding grew from 38 million at end-2022 to 153 million in early 2026, a 303% increase funded by discounted offerings; POET raised $292M in 2025 and another $150M in Q1 2026.
- The report details a PIPE arbitrage pattern where MMCAP International bought 16.2% of POET via a $75M offering at $5.50 on October 7, 2025, then filed 24 hours later showing its stake had dropped to 9.99% while warrants remained intact.
Read the Full Report Summary →
Morpheus Research Short Report on Figure Technology Solutions
| Metric | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Close (Day Before) | $35.62 | - |
| Low (Report Date) | $34.67 | -2.67% |
| Close (Report Date) | $35.73 | +0.31% |
| Close (End of Week) | $36.67 | +2.95% |
Stock Price Impact. Figure shares barely flinched. FIGR dipped to an intraday low of $34.67 on Thursday, a 2.67% drop from the prior close of $35.62, before recovering to finish fractionally higher at $35.73. That pattern continued Friday, with the stock climbing to $36.67 for a weekly gain of 2.95%. For a report alleging that substantially all of Figure's valuation premium rests on a misrepresented blockchain narrative, the lack of reaction is notable. Plausible explanations include a long-holder post-IPO base, the blockchain thesis already being discounted by sophisticated investors, or the market waiting for regulatory response before repricing.
About the Company. Figure Technology Solutions is a US fintech lender and the number one non-bank HELOC originator in the country. Founded in 2018 by Mike Cagney, who previously co-founded SoFi, the company went public on NASDAQ in September 2025 and now carries a market cap of roughly $7.7 billion. Substantially all of Figure's revenue comes from home equity lines of credit, yet the stock trades at a 103% forward earnings premium to fintech peers on the strength of its blockchain positioning. Figure also operates its Provenance Blockchain, the Figure Connect loan marketplace, a DeFi platform called Democratized Prime, a yield-bearing stablecoin (YLDS), and an on-chain stock exchange project (OPEN).
Key Points from the Report.
- Morpheus alleges Figure's SEC filings directly contradict repeated statements by its Chairman, CEO, and CFO that loans are originated "end-to-end on the blockchain"; per Figure's own S-1, the origination system "does not rely on the use of blockchain technology," and former employees confirm loans are only recorded to the chain after funding.
- The report argues Figure's claimed blockchain efficiencies are misrepresented, with a competitor telling Morpheus that the 20% loan audit rate Figure attributes to blockchain is a standard ratings-agency requirement applied equally to non-blockchain lenders.
- According to Morpheus, Figure Connect is substantially propped up by Figure's own purchases, with only 53.5% of early volume transacted by third parties and the announced $200M Sixth Street JV contributing just $49.6M with no HELOC purchases as of December 2025.
- Chairman Mike Cagney has sold $64 million of FIGR shares since IPO at an average of $28.50 with zero purchases, despite publicly calling $30 a "goofy" price, while an active UCC filing suggests an additional undisclosed pledge of 2 million shares.
Read the Full Report Summary →
Grizzly Research Short Report on Sinch AB
| Metric | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Close (Day Before) | kr 24.65 | - |
| Low (Report Date) | kr 22.29 | -9.57% |
| Close (Report Date) | kr 27.78 | +12.70% |
| Close (End of Week) | kr 27.50 | +11.56% |
Stock Price Impact. Sinch produced one of the more dramatic intraday reversals on a short report release in recent memory. Shares sold off aggressively into publication, trading as low as kr 22.29 for a 9.57% decline from the prior close of kr 24.65. By the end of the day, Sinch had staged a complete reversal, closing at kr 27.78 for a 12.70% gain, and that level largely held through Friday's kr 27.50 close, leaving the stock up 11.56% on the week. The counter-reaction points to a combination of short covering, opportunistic dip buying, and possibly market skepticism about how quickly US regulatory overhang would translate into financial impact for a Swedish-listed CPaaS business.
About the Company. Sinch AB is a Swedish cloud communications company listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, formerly known as CLX Communications AB. It sells communications infrastructure to enterprises, including SMS APIs, verification codes, and voice connectivity, and grew rapidly through acquisition. The most strategically significant purchase was Inteliquent, a US wholesale voice network acquired in 2021 for $1.14 billion. Following that deal, Sinch's total revenue jumped from SEK 16.2 billion to SEK 27.7 billion, with North America growing to over 62% of total revenues. Inteliquent operates as a wholesale infrastructure provider that other telecoms, VoIP services, and apps use to route calls.
Key Points from the Report.
- Grizzly cites a multistate Attorney General Anti-Robocall Task Force alleging Inteliquent is responsible for roughly 45% of Amazon, Apple, and government imposter robocalls in the US, an estimated 450 million Amazon and Apple scam calls and 1.425 billion SSA and IRS imposter calls between 2020 and 2024.
- Inteliquent received 9,712 traceback notices since 2019, with 5,728 issued after regulators first flagged concerns in August 2022, indicating no meaningful corrective action according to Grizzly.
- Grizzly alleges Sinch's fraud, KYC, and compliance function is critically understaffed at roughly 20 people company-wide versus 149 at rival Twilio, with former employees saying only one or two people worked on compliance when Inteliquent was independent.
- According to Grizzly, none of the ongoing regulatory investigations, including the December 2025 multistate AG task force notice, have been disclosed to investors in Sinch's public filings.
Read the Full Report Summary →
Activ8 Newswire
Short seller Orso Partners targets AQR backer Affiliated Managers Group over tax-loss harvesting. Orso has built a bet against AMG (NYSE: AMG), the asset manager whose backing of AQR Capital is fueling a $57 billion ecosystem of tax-aware long-short strategies, arguing the IRS may take interest in the leveraged and derivative-based tactics behind those trades. Source: Bloomberg
FCA finalizes simpler UK short selling regime. The Financial Conduct Authority has published final rules that reduce reporting burdens on short sellers, including publishing only aggregated net short positions per issuer rather than naming individual firms, which AIMA says should improve liquidity and limit copycat trading. Source: Securities Finance Times
Barron's flags energy names that could still rise as the sector loses steam. The magazine argues that after a rally driven by the Iran conflict cooled into ceasefire, not all energy stocks are played out, a dynamic worth watching for anyone tracking short positioning across the sector. Source: Barron's
