Your best response when a company shouts crypto? Run

Taipei

WE all know the drill. A US-listed company announces plans to move into cryptocurrency. Its shares surge. And then they fall. Some speculators make a quick buck, then cash out. Others are left holding the baby, having bought in at the peak.

But there's another thread running through these firms that should tell you a thing or two. They're all struggling businesses with clear strategic or financial challenges.

Long Island Iced Tea is the most notable of the recent crypto-opportunists. The company hasn't posted a profit in at least 11 quarters and, as Bloomberg's Lily Katz uncovered, was facing delisting unless it brought its market cap up above US$35 million. Chronically unprofitable and ever-shrinking Chinese social media co…