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Once a sure-fire way to bet on an IPO pop, blank-check deals are now experiencing a market washout with the vast majority of new issues dipping below their debut price.
Ninety-seven percent of more than 300 pre-merger SPAC deals are now trading below their key $10 offer price, according to a CNBC analysis of SPAC Research data.
“It’s clear not all SPACs are created equal and the market is ripe for consolidation,” Altimeter’s Chris Conforti said.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

SPACs are getting a much-needed reality check as investors and regulators grow wary of the Wall Street craze, and the majority of deals could have a hard time surviving with time running out.
Once a sure-fire way to bet on an IPO pop, blank-check deals are now experiencing a market washout with the vast majority of new issues dipping below their debut price. Ninety-seven percent of more than 300 pre-merger SPAC deals are now trading below their key $10 offer price, according to a CNBC analysis of SPAC Research data.

Most of the SPACs are trading for less than the cash raised in their IPOs amid shareholder redemptions and cooling demand. Meanwhile, they’re up against a deadline to find a target to merge with in a crowded market. If the SPACs fail to complete a deal within a timeframe, they will liquidate and return capital to investors minus expenses.
“It’s clear not all SPACs are created equal and the market is ripe for consolidation,” said Chris Conforti, head of Altimeter Capital Markets Platform. “I’m hopeful that over time the market consolidates just like private equity, venture capital, and crossover investing did where there are a handful of high-quality regular sponsor partners who can help strong companies go public this way.”

Many saw the burst of the bubble coming as the industry had grown too far, too fast in a market full of speculation. SPACs, as an IPO alternative, attracted massive amounts of capital from investors hoping to get in early on the next Tesla. However, the reality is that small-time investors often miss out on long-term gains, while insiders are able to get rich sometimes at the expense of shareholders.
SPACs stand for special purpose acquisition companies, which raise capital in an IPO and use the cash to merge with a private company and take it public, usually within two years. SPACs are typically priced at a nominal $10 per unit and, unlike a traditional IPO, they are not priced based on a valuation of an existing business.
During the record first quarter, the SPAC market saw 89 new deals with $28.6 billion capital raised per month, and now the number tumbled to just 9 deals a month with $1.6 billion funds since April, according to data from Bespoke Investment Group.

“Regulatory and legal concerns continue to cloud the issuance outlook,” Goldman Sachs head of U.S. equity strategy David Kostin said in a note. “SPAC returns have been weak, especially following deal closure.”

‘Ultimately go away’

Increased scrutiny on the market has brought to light some SPAC features that are unfair to shareholders, especially retail investors.
In a letter last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Senate Democrats called out some of the biggest names behind SPACs, including Chamath Palihapitiya, questioning the “misaligned incentives between SPACs’ creators and early investors on the one hand, and retail investors on the other.”
SPACs tend to have an outsized benefit for sponsors. Blank-check company sponsors are paid so-called promote fees, which typically entitle them to 20% of the total shares outstanding following the IPO for free or at a big discount. This reward usually results in immediate dilution for the target-company shareholders.
Meanwhile, most SPAC sponsors refrain from investing in the companies they take public and can quickly flip their sponsor promote shares regardless of the short- or long-term success of the company, according to Conforti.
“We expect that the vast majority of these types of sponsors and market activity will ultimately go away as company executives and boards demand more aligned incentives,” Conforti said.
In April, Altimeter announced its Altimeter Growth Corp. will merge with Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing giant Grab in a deal that values the company at $39.6 billion — one of the largest blank-check mergers to date.
The Grab deal has a three-year lock up on sponsor promote share, while Altimeter Capital Management put up a direct $750 million investment as the largest PIPE investor.
— CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this article. More

Wise CEO Kristo Käärmann has been fined £365,651 by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs for deliberately defaulting on his tax bill.
Käärmann was dealt the penalty after being late to submit his personal tax returns during the 2017/18 tax year.
Wise shares fell about 3% following the news.

Kristo Kaarmann, Co-Founder & CEO, TransferWise, on Centre Stage during day one of MoneyConf 2018 at the RDS Arena in Dublin. (Photo By Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Eoin Noonan | Sportsfile | Getty Images

LONDON — The co-founder of $15 billion fintech start-up Wise has been slapped with a £365,651 ($494,951) fine by British tax collectors for deliberately defaulting on his tax bill.
Kristo Käärmann, who is Wise’s CEO, was dealt the penalty after being late to submit his personal tax returns during the 2017/18 tax year.

His tax bill for that year was £720,495, according to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
“We are able to publish the names of those penalised under civil procedures for deliberately defaulting on certain tax obligations,” an HMRC spokesperson told CNBC, without commenting on the specifics of Käärmann’s case.
“This is about influencing behaviour by encouraging defaulters to engage with HMRC.”
A spokesperson for Käärmann told CNBC that the Estonian-born billionaire “has since devoted more time to keeping his personal admin in order.”
“Kristo was late submitting his personal tax returns for the 2017/18 tax year, despite sufficient reminders from HMRC,” the spokesperson said.

“His tax returns have since been completed, and he paid substantial late filing penalties.”
The news was first reported by The Telegraph newspaper.
Founded by Käärmann and fellow Estonian entrepreneur Taavet Hinrikus in 2011, Wise is now considered a darling of the British tech scene.
Formerly known as TransferWise, the money transfer company went public in a blockbuster market debut in July which valued it at more than £8 billion.
The firm’s shares have continued to rally since, climbing nearly 40%. At Wise’s current share price, Käärmann is worth approximately £2.1 billion on paper.
News of the tax violation weighed on Wise shares Tuesday. The stock was last trading down about 3%.
According to The Telegraph, Käärmann’s tax default could breach U.K. rules which say that public company directors must be free from conflicts between duties to their employer and private matters.
The Financial Conduct Authority can also revoke an executive’s approval to carry out their role if they fail to comply with standards of honesty, the newspaper said.
“We are unable to comments on individual firms but we do consider information of this type in our ongoing supervision,” a spokesperson for the FCA told CNBC.

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LONDON — British software company Blue Prism said Tuesday it has agreed a deal to be taken over by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners for £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) in cash.
Blue Prism, which specializes in software robots that automate repetitive tasks, said Vista would pay each shareholder £11.25 per share, a 35% premium to the company’s last closing price of £8.32.
It’s the latest in a string of private equity deals for publicly-listed software companies. Earlier this year, security firm Proofpoint agreed a $12.3 billion sale to Thoma Bravo, while Cloudera is being bought by KKR and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

Blue Prism is also among a multitude of British firms that have attracted interest from U.S. private equity investors. Supermarket chain Morrisons, infrastructure company John Laing and aerospace firm Cobham have all been the target of takeover bids in recent months.
Following completion of the acquisition, Vista said it intends to indirectly transfer Blue Prism to portfolio company TIBCO, an enterprise data firm.

“Combining with Vista and TIBCO will ensure we remain at the forefront of the next generation of intelligent automation,” said Jason Kingdon, chairman and CEO of Blue Prism.
“We can expand the range of products we offer our customers, with TIBCO’s global footprint and technologies; and, as a privately owned company, we will also have greater access to capital to pursue new growth opportunities via product investment and other potential M&A.”
The price for Blue Prism marks a major discount to U.S.-based rivals such as UiPath, the New York-listed company with a $28 billion market cap, and Automation Anywhere, which was last privately valued at $6.8 billion.
Shares of Blue Prism sank 2.6% Tuesday morning.
Activist investor Coast Capital had expressed concern about the valuation of the company amid speculation it was set to be taken over by private equity buyers.
However Coast, which owns approximately 3% of Blue Prism, recently came out in support of an acquisition.
“Coast will be supportive of whatever deal gives the company the best opportunity to improve its prospects,” the firm’s founder, James Ratesh, told Bloomberg last week.

– CNBC’s Elliot Smith contributed to this report. More

The credit card giant announced “Mastercard Installments” for U.S., Australian and U.K. markets on Tuesday.
“Buy now pay later” has become a battleground between banks and fintechs with Affirm, Amazon, Square and major Wall Street banks competing to issue installment loans.
These increasingly popular loans let buyers split up purchases through monthly, often interest-free payments. But some worry about the new debt burden on younger consumers.

The MasterCard logo on a smartphone arranged in Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Mastercard is jumping into the competitive installment loan space by allowing banks and start-ups to ramp up their own “buy now, pay later” offers.
The credit card giant announced a new program called “Mastercard Installments” for U.S., Australian and U.K. markets on Tuesday, which will go live in the first quarter of next year. The increasingly popular lending style lets buyers split up purchases through monthly, often interest-free payments.

Mastercard doesn’t lend directly to customers. Its network acts as a middle man in the payment process for credit and debit cards. In this case, it will enable banks and fintechs to “plug in” to the Mastercard program and offer loans directly.
Barclays U.S. consumer bank, SoFi, Synchrony and Marqeta are among those that said they plan to use Mastercard for rolling out installment loans.
“Consumers are demonstrating a high level of interest in this buy now, pay later capability,” Craig Vosburg, chief product officer at Mastercard, said in a phone interview. “It uses the power of the Mastercard network and franchise to bring this to market at scale.”
So-called BNPL loans increase sales by 45% on average, and reduce “cart abandonment” by 35%, according to Mastercard. Vosburg, who is also Mastercard’s president of North America, said merchants see these types of loans as a way to drive more sales. Customers, meanwhile, tend to turn to these loans as cheaper and more convenient alternatives to traditional revolving credit.
The space has become a battleground for banks and fintechs alike.

Jack Dorsey’s Square announced a $29 billion deal in August to buy Australian company AfterPay as a foray into the space. Affirm, one of the early and better-known companies in the space, recently partnered with Amazon for a buy now, pay later option on the e-commerce site.
PayPal, Klarna, Mastercard and Fiserv, American Express, Citi and J.P. Morgan Chase are all offering similar lending products. Apple plans to launch installment lending in a partnership with Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg reported. Mastercard rival Visa is developing a similar product.
Affirm CEO Max Levchin is among those that have argued installment lending could be a threat to traditional card players, like Mastercard and Visa, by chipping away at revolving credit. But Vosburg said it’s “additive.” Many of the payments made to fund the loans tend to be a Mastercard credit transaction, in which the company collects a small fee.
“We see a high prevalence, in our program and others, as people choosing Mastercard debit as the means of repayment,” Vosburg said. “It’s consistent with our mission of providing choice to both consumers in terms of how they want to pay, and to merchants in terms of how they want to be paid.”
Plans differ in terms of interest payments, although many are interest free to start. Mastercard said it’s up to the lender to decide on the rate, and whether to allow use of credit cards to fund installment loans.
Others have warned about the risk of additional credit and something called “debt stacking” — or using traditional forms of credit to fund these installment loans. Some pay-later offerings also aren’t reported to credit bureaus. Companies offering these loans say they’re able to use data to assess credit worthiness better than a traditional FICO score.
“Lenders don’t want to extend loans that can’t be repaid, and we don’t want to see lenders doing that — so we’re actively working to improve the visibility of information about a consumers capacity to repay a loan,” Vosburg said.
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Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket:
Ford (F) – Ford is accelerating its push into electric vehicles, with plans for a new U.S. assembly plant and three battery factories. Ford and South Korean partner SK Innovation will invest more than $11 billion in the project. Ford shares rose 3.3% in premarket trading.
Thor Industries (THO) – The recreational vehicle maker reported quarterly earnings of $4.12 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $2.92 a share. Revenue also topped Wall Street forecasts. Thor said demand for RVs remains strong, with backlogs at a record high. Its shares rose 3.6% in the premarket.

Applied Materials (AMAT) – Applied Materials shares slid 3.6% in the premarket after New Street downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “buy,” noting record valuation and limited upside for the maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
FactSet (FDS) – The financial information provider earned $2.88 per share for its latest quarter, 16 cents a share above estimates. Revenue also came in above projections, helped by an increase in sales of analytics, content and technology solutions.
United Natural Foods (UNFI) – The food distributor beat the 80 cents a share consensus estimate, with quarterly profit of $1.18 per share. Revenue came in below consensus estimates. United Natural said sales in the year-ago quarter saw strong pandemic-driven customer demand. Shares fell 2.7% in the premarket.
Aurora Cannabis (ACB) – The Canada-based cannabis producer reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue as consumer cannabis sales fell 45% from a year earlier. The company cited Covid-19 restrictions as a key reason for the drop. Aurora Cannabis slid 2.2% in premarket action.
Pfizer (PFE) – Pfizer dosed its first patient in a study of an MRNA-based flu vaccine, the same technology used in the successful Covid-19 vaccine it developed with German partner BioNTech (BNTX). Pfizer also submitted study data to the Food and Drug Administration on the use of its Covid vaccine in children aged 5-11, with a formal emergency use authorization submission expected in the coming weeks.
Sanofi (SNY) – Sanofi announced positive results from a study of its own MRNA-based Covid vaccine, but then said it was halting any further development due to the domination of the market by the Pfizer and Moderna (MRNA) vaccines. The French drugmaker said it would use MRNA technology to develop other vaccines, while focusing on the development of a protein-based Covid vaccine with British partner GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Endeavor Group (EDR) – Endeavor is buying sports betting business OpenBet from Scientific Games (SGMS) for $1.2 billion in cash and stock. The Ultimate Fighting Championship owner plans to combine OpenBet with its existing sports betting business. Endeavor shares soared 10.1% in the premarket.
Huntsman (HUN) – Huntsman rallied 4.2% in the premarket after activist hedge fund Starboard Value took an 8.4% stake in the chemical maker, calling the shares undervalued. Huntsman said it was looking forward to a constructive dialog with Starboard.
Merck (MRK) – Merck is near a deal to buy drugmaker Acceleron Pharma (XLRN), according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg had earlier reported that Acceleron was in talks to be bought by an unnamed major pharmaceutical company. Acceleron rose 2.6% in premarket trading.
Spotify Technology (SPOT) – Spotify kicked off a global campaign designed to boost its advertising sales. The music streaming service’s new campaign is aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses beyond what’s been its traditional focus. Spotify fell 1.9% in the premarket. More

Long-time market bull Phil Orlando is delivering a 10% correction warning.
Federated Hermes’ chief market strategist warns that uncertainty surrounding fiscal and monetary policies will prevent the market from breaking out of its recent rut.

“There could be another shoe to drop over the course of the next five weeks or so,” Orlando told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Monday. “We’re seeing how events develop and evolve here.”
Orlando went on pullback watch in midsummer. He saw signs that a 5% to 10% air pocket was materializing, and he estimated it would strike stocks in the August through October period. His worries spanned from hotter-than-expected inflation to Covid variants.
According to Orlando, those risks still exist, but Washington policy is now setting stocks up for a major setback.
“On the monetary policy side, inflation has been running much hotter than the Fed and the administration has been prophesying,” he said. “We think inflation is more sustainably higher. That’s going to result in the Federal Reserve changing monetary policy both in terms of their taper and their interest rate increases much more quickly than they originally told us.”
He’s also concerned about a potential change at the Federal Reserve’s helm. Chair Jerome Powell’s term is up in January. The expiration gives President Joe Biden an opportunity to change a President Donald Trump appointee.

Orlando also lists lawmakers’ debates over the debt ceiling and trillions in infrastructure spending as major market headwinds.
“This is a very critical week,” he said. “All of those discussions are very much in flux, so any combination of these developments in Washington could be ripe for another leg down in stocks.”
Orlando cautions that the backdrop makes the growth trade, which includes Big Tech, particularly vulnerable.
“If we’re right that there’s a 5 to 10% air pocket coming due to some of these events, the technology stocks we think could get hit disproportionately,” said Orlando. “Maybe that would be a 10% to 20% move to the downside.”
In lieu of technology, he would focus on buying stocks that are tied to the economic recovery and have pricing power on weakness. Orlando particularly likes energy, financials, industrials, consumer discretionary, materials, small-cap stocks and international developed markets.
“There’s a tremendous catalyst to get their earnings and growth moving, and they’ve lagged the technology stocks — the growth stocks — pretty significantly,” he said. “There’s a catch-up trade coming.”
Despite Orlando’s near-term correction warning, he has higher expectations for year-end. Orlando’s S&P 500 year-end target is 4,800, and his 2022 year-end forecast is 5,300.
On Monday, the index slipped by 0.28% and closed at 4,443.11.
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As foreign businesses watch a crackdown on domestic tech giants, the Chinese government has continued to promote opportunities for them — in increasingly specific ways.
“Now you’ve really got to show you’ve got something that China wants, or China doesn’t feel is a competitor to its own interest and needs,” said Adam Dunnett, secretary general at the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.
Leaders of U.S. and European business interest groups in China said the biggest challenge is still getting visas for executives and their families to travel between local operations and global headquarters.

Visitors walk on the Bund in Shanghai, China, on Friday, February 12, 2021.
Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING — Foreign companies are trying to hold on to lucrative opportunities in China, even if new regulations and the pandemic have made international operations harder.
As these businesses watch a crackdown on domestic tech giants, the Chinese government has continued to promote the world’s second-largest economy as opening further to overseas capital.

In just the last few weeks, local authorities in the cities of Beijing and Shenzhen have followed those in Hainan — an entire island province that is becoming a free trade zone — in announcing new benefits for foreign capital in special development districts. Similar business-friendly policies have been rolled out in the past, with mixed results.
“The main difference is it’s much more targeted than it was before,” said Adam Dunnett, secretary general at the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.
“Now you’ve really got to show you’ve got something that China wants, or China doesn’t feel is a competitor to its own interest and needs,” he said.
Chinese authorities kicked off their latest five-year development plan this year. It contains ambitious goals for technological advancement in the face of rising pressure from the U.S. Beijing also wants to build up the economy’s reliance on domestic consumption, rather than exports.
“The way we see it is, some companies are going to get pushed out of the market,” Dunnett said. “They’ll fight as long as they can. Others have something to offer, and they’re willing to offer it because the market is there and it’s good and they’ll try to hold onto it as long as they can. And others, quite frankly, are in areas that are not deemed as being sensitive and will continue to do well in their own right with relatively little disturbance.”

When it comes to the overall operating environment, leaders of American and European business interest groups in China said members haven’t seen significant progress on Trump-era calls for more equal access in the country. A paper released Thursday by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China noted in particular that government procurement policies still favor local businesses over foreign ones.
Beijing’s regulatory crackdown is not helping sentiment. In July, Chinese authorities ordered ride-hailing app Didi to suspend new user registrations just days after its New York IPO, and told after-school tutoring companies to slash operating hours. Companies from Tal Education to Tencent have seen shares plunge.
“Of late, we’ve seen some crackdowns on entire sectors and in ways that aren’t entirely understandable or predictable,” said Greg Gilligan, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. “Businesses need, of course, stability and predictability.”
The other pressing challenge for businesses is getting visas approved for executives, their spouses and children, Gilligan said. “These restrictive travel policies are directly impacting foreign investment decisions in a negative way.”
China’s national economic planning agency acknowledged this specific drag on investment at a press conference this month on encouraging foreign direct investment. There was no mention of support for employee relocation, but rather general statements on relaxing restrictions on foreign capital.

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The country’s rapid growth into the world’s second-largest economy relied heavily on foreign investment. However, overseas businesses have complained for years of being required to transfer proprietary technology into the country in order the operate there. Chinese authorities also prohibited foreign businesses from operating in sensitive industries, or forced joint ventures with local players.
The Chinese government has removed many of these restrictions in recent years, most notably in the finance and auto sectors.
Joerg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, said on a call with reporters that Chinese authorities have welcomed more European manufacturing in the last two years.
“They don’t mind having [a] foreigner supply it,” he said, “as long as they’re within the Great Wall of China.”

Slices of opportunity

Local authorities are also relaxing controls in a targeted way.
A “Two Zones” policy designation that rolled out in the last year in the capital city of Beijing removes local restrictions on full foreign ownership of aviation maintenance businesses, Liu Meiying, deputy director of the “Two Zones,” said at a forum hosted by think tank Center for China and Globalization in early September.
She added that “Two Zones” has halved the amount of assets the parent of a new foreign investment company needs to $200 million, and the area is the only one in the country allowing foreign investment in audiovisual production.
Also in early September, the central government announced the Qianhai free trade zone connecting the city of Shenzhen with Hong Kong would expand by eight times, to 120.56 square kilometers (46.5 square miles). The expansion of the finance hub, which is already home to UBS and HSBC, comes as the mainland has increased its control of Hong Kong, a global financial center.
Klaus Zenkel, general manager at Imedco Technology (Shenzhen) and vice president at the EU Chamber’s chapter in south China, said he’s optimistic about plans for Qianhai, such as granting the district a high level of administrative autonomy.
It’s still uncertain how well such plans will be implemented. When it comes to the southern island province of Hainan, where authorities have accelerated announcements of tax breaks and other business-friendly policies this year, these changes are not enough for foreign businesses to come right away, said Chen Jie, general manager at Hong Kong-based developer Keyestone Group.
Chen noted that other than consumer brands, most businesses will first watch how others already operating on the island fare under the new policies. The company is building a Hello Kitty theme park in Hainan set to open in 2024.

New laws require greater compliance

China’s growing middle class and massive size remain a magnet for foreign businesses, regardless of government politics or policies. Official data show non-financial foreign direct investment into China rose 27.8% year-on-year in U.S. dollar terms in the first eight months of the year to $113.78 billion.
The “market opportunity is very enticing,” said Matt Marguiles, vice president for China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council. “Most companies are either staying where they are, or growing. It’s going to be company specific.”
But Marguiles said compliance is a growing issue due to new Chinese laws such as those on personal data protection.
“There’s some concerns for data security, some laws in Europe, some laws in China, so you need to be careful which data you can use,” the EU Chamber’s Zenkel said. As is also the case with supply chains, there are “restrictions on both sides which need to be observed.”

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Coinbase will let U.S. users deposit any percentage of their paychecks directly into their accounts in the coming weeks.
Deposits can either be in U.S. dollars or immediately transferred into cryptocurrencies with no fees.
The move comes as Coinbase faces increased criticism from regulators over digital assets.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is going deeper into traditional financial services, allowing users to deposit paychecks directly into their online accounts.
Coinbase said Monday that its U.S. customers will be able to use the direct deposit service for any percentage of their paycheck. They can hold their money in dollars or immediately transfer it into cryptocurrencies like bitcoin with no fees.

“With direct deposit, customers can more easily access our crypto-first financial services and be ready for any trade or purchase,” Max Branzburg, vice president of product at Coinbase, said in a blog post. “We’re determined to deliver the most trusted full suite of crypto-first financial services to our 68 million users.”
The launch, which goes live in the coming weeks, comes after customers complained that frequent transfers from their bank accounts to Coinbase are “time-consuming and inconvenient,” the company said. Coinbase added that it aims to give “instant access to the cryptoeconomy.”

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Coinbase said it will use an FDIC-insured bank partner for direct deposit but did not specify which one. The company works with MetaBank for its Coinbase rewards card.
Other popular online finance apps already allow for direct deposit. Online banking companies like Chime and SoFi provide the service as part of a broad portfolio of products, while PayPal and stock trading app Robinhood also let users deposit their paychecks.
Coinbase is rolling out new offerings while simultaneously trying to navigate a complicated regulatory environment. Last week, the company canceled plans for a high-interest lending product after the SEC threatened to sue over it.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong called it “really sketchy behavior coming out of the SEC recently.” Armstrong also said the agency refused to meet with the company, and gave “zero explanation as to why.”
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has sharpened his criticism of the cryptocurrency industry. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee earlier this month, Gensler called for more crypto oversight. He also asked for additional resources from Congress to ensure investor protection and contended that most digital assets traded need to register with the agency.
Coinbase went public in April through a direct listing. The stock has dropped 40% since its debut, trading at $229.40 on Monday. Its moves often mirror the volatility of bitcoin, which is down 28% over the same stretch.
WATCH: Bitcoin drops after China says crypto-related activities are illegal

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