SEC Branch Trolls Blockchain Stock Pumpers

The social media team at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Fort Worth office has taken aim at the recent trend of publicly-traded companies looking for a blockchain price boost.

As previously reported, the past months have seen a range of companies, including a virtual reality platform and a Long Island iced tea distributor, "pivot" to blockchain – and subsequently benefitting from the market windfall thanks to investors.

Those dizzying price gains have elicited criticism, a public stock freeze or two and, now, a crack from the Forth Worth SEC, which posted earlier today:

We’re contemplating adding “Blockchain” to our name so we’ll increase our followers by 70,000 percent.

— SEC Fort Worth (@FortWorth_SEC) January 8, 2018

Other companies which pivoted to crypto or blockchain focuses include Riot Blockchain, formerly BiOptix Diagnostics, and LongFin, which saw a 2,600% stock jump after purchasing a blockchain micro-lending company.

While these companies have announced efforts to work with blockchain or, at the very least, mine cryptocurrencies (as seen in a number of past filings, organizations like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have sounded the alarm on such announcements.