Short sellers who were adding into last week's rally are now getting rewarded. CIFR has dropped 13.5% over the past week, and the short position has kept climbing regardless.
Short interest has reached 19.2% of the free float, up 10.4% over the past week. A week ago, when the prior note was written, it stood at 17.7%. Bears did not cover into the rally and are not covering into the retreat either. The position is simply growing.
The borrow market tells a more nuanced story. Availability has tightened to 120.5%, down from around 150% a week ago, a 19.5% drop week-on-week. There is still more than one share available for every one already borrowed, so the lending pool is not yet constrained. But the direction of travel is clear. Cost to borrow remains low at 0.53%, so the incremental cost of holding a short position is not a deterrent.
The ORTEX short score sits at 66.1, up steadily from 62.9 ten days ago. It ranks in the seventh percentile for short score intensity within its sector.
The put-call ratio hit 0.42 on September 29, the highest reading in nearly four standard deviations above its 20-day mean, before pulling back to 0.30 on the latest close. That one-day spike captured a rush for protective puts as the stock fell 5.6% intraday. The 52-week PCR range runs 0.27 to 0.56, so a reading of 0.42 was elevated but not at the outer extreme.
On the other side, retail attention is running hot. ORTEX Alt Data shows Wikipedia views and ORTEX page traffic running 2.67 standard deviations above their own 90-day average as of September 27. This is an attention reading, not a revenue indicator, but elevated retail curiosity into a falling stock with rising short interest is worth flagging as a source of potential volatility.
A wave of analyst initiations landed this month. UBS started with a Buy and a $23 target. Wells Fargo initiated at Overweight with a $25 target. Rothschild came in at Neutral with an $18 target. Morgan Stanley, already at Overweight, raised its target to $54 from $43.50. The consensus sits at Buy across 15 analysts, with a mean target of $30.93 against a current price of $16.51.
V3 Holding remains the largest holder on the register with a Schedule 13D filing, last disclosing a 14.6% stake as of June 2026. Stakes in 13D filings are as last disclosed; positions can move without a further filing unless the threshold is crossed again.
Earnings are due October 27. The last print on August 4 sent the stock down 22.6% on the day and 28.8% over the following five sessions.
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