Crypto Treasury Deals Dogged by Unusual Trading Patterns (1)

On Friday, Sept. 26, Applied DNA Sciences Inc. shares abruptly soared as much as 52%.

For most people, the reason wouldn’t become clear until a few days later, when the biotech firm announced a $58 million equity deal to start accumulating BNB, a cryptocurrency with close ties to exchange giant Binance Holdings Ltd. Former Trump official Anthony Scaramucci was named as an adviser. The shares climbed another 72%, before plummeting to a little above where they had originally traded, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The hedge fund executives behind the deal had spent months searching for a takeover target, ...