Overview
- Viceroy Research published short-seller reports that accused Abaxx Exchange of inflating trading volume through wash trading and questioned the exchange’s technology and demand.
- Abaxx strongly denied the allegations, said the reports were a short-and-distort campaign, and asked the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization and Singapore’s Monetary Authority to investigate trading in its shares.
- The company retained U.S. law firm Paul, Weiss to probe alleged wrongdoing tied to Viceroy and to support legal and regulatory responses.
- To reassure investors, Abaxx released operational and financial figures saying it holds more than C$97 million in cash, has a two-quarter average net burn of about C$12.3 million, and reported month-to-date increases in average daily volume and open interest on its exchange.
- Abaxx stressed that wash trading is prohibited under its Exchange Rule 508 and described active market surveillance, while noting the coverage here is based on its disclosures and no regulator-confirmed investigations have been reported.