Last year, roughly 140 tiny foreign companies showed up on Nasdaq and NYSE, raised $1.6 billion between them, and watched their stock prices do things that had nothing to do with their actual businesses. This year, that number is 13.
The Securities and Exchange Commission would like you to know that is not a coincidence.
The SEC’s Cross-Border Task Force, launched on September 5, 2025, has effectively turned off the tap on foreign microcap IPOs in the US. The task force was built specifically to target cross-border fraud and market manipulation tied to foreign issuers, and by the evidence of mid-2026, it has done exactly that.
What the numbers actually look like
In 2025, approximately 100 of those 140 microcap IPOs came from Asia-based issuers. Many of those listings followed a recognizable script: stock hits the exchange, price spikes on social media hype, retail investors pile in, founders and early backers exit, and the stock crashes. Some ended in trading suspensions. The technical term is pump-and-dump. The practical result is that small investors lose money while the people who set up the scheme walk away clean.
