Rezolve AI has now passed its August 6 earnings print with the short-side story sharply more intense than the contradictory standoff described in last week's notes — short interest has jumped to a new high, borrow costs have quadrupled in a week, and the stock closed Thursday at $2.38, up 6.25% on the day but still down 8.5% over the past month.
The most striking development is in the borrow market. Cost to borrow has gone from roughly 16% APR a week ago to 60% APR — a 278% jump in seven days — signalling a scramble for available shares as bears press their position. That move is notable in context: CTB peaked above 200% in late June before collapsing through mid-July as short sellers briefly covered, and this week's spike represents a partial re-tightening of those conditions. Availability now sits at just 20.9%, meaning roughly one share remains for every four already lent out — down from 22.8% at the time of the last note, and far below the 111% reading as recently as July 14. The ORTEX short score has risen every session this week to reach 80.5, its highest level in the trailing 10-day history and a ranking in approximately the second percentile of the broader universe for short-side pressure. Short interest itself has climbed to 14.6% of free float — 43.8 million shares — up nearly 15% on the week, continuing the aggressive rebuild from the mid-July trough of roughly 25.8 million shares. The direction of travel is unambiguous: bears have not been shaken out, they have added.
Options positioning continues to diverge from that bearish read, and the gap has not closed. The put/call ratio is running at 0.24, just above its 52-week low of 0.113 and almost a full standard deviation below its 20-day average of 0.27 — options market participants are still skewing toward calls rather than downside protection. That divergence has been present for at least two weeks now, and it has not resolved in either direction. Two scenarios sustain it simultaneously: bulls buying calls as a leveraged long bet on a post-earnings recovery, while bears build out short positions in the underlying. The fact that the PCR has barely moved despite the sharp rise in CTB suggests options buyers are not being deterred by tighter borrow conditions.
The fundamental picture offers little resolution. Rezolve carries an ORTEX short score rank in the second percentile of the universe — meaning almost no stock in the database shows more short-side pressure. The Growth pillar score of 90.4 remains the lone bull anchor, reflecting aggressive forward revenue projections, but Quality and Value scores are deeply negative: the f-score of 3 signals fragile financial health, and both EV/EBITDA and earnings multiples are negative. Insider activity is the one constructive data point — Founder and CEO Daniel Wagner bought just over $3.25 million of stock in early April at $4.00 per share, and a Director added a further $266k in May at $2.78. Both transactions are now underwater at the current $2.38 close, which adds a wrinkle: if insiders are buying and bears are also adding, someone is materially wrong on the outcome. Among correlated peers this week, SOUN rose 7.7% on the day while AISP gained 2.9%, suggesting the AI software group had a broadly constructive session — context that makes RZLV's 6.25% one-day move look less idiosyncratic.
The next earnings print is scheduled for August 6, and with borrow costs now at four times last week's level and short interest at its highest point since early June, the tension between an aggressively short-positioned borrow market and a call-skewed options market is the setup to watch into that release.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open RZLV on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
