Israeli Regulator Investigating Public “Bitcoin” Company for False Claims

Bitcoin mania has taken over the business world. Companies from India to Long Island are rushing to add bit, coin, crypto or blockchain to their names. As that is the case it would not be a big surprise if some have also stretched the definition of what they do too far just to have some connection to cryptocurrency. Now Israeli financial authorities have to decide how much hype is too much.
Last week we reported about a new trend among firms whose shares are listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) – declaring they have some connection to bitcoin. Among those was a solar energy technology company, Apollo Power (TASE: APLP), which announced it carried out a “successful test” of mining cryptocurrency with the system it’s developing.

This company was able to push its stock value up 150% in early trading by basically just mining half an hour for an insignificant amount of ether (about 4 cents worth), details it did not initially disclose. The share price has since come crashing down to reality, but management might have bigger concerns right now. The Israel Securities Authority (ISA) is reportedly investigating the firm for making false claims to investors. Beyond the specific matter at hand, this move is very likely also another attempt by the ISA to make it clear it will not welcome bitcoin to the TASE in any way.