Blank-Check Firms Stuffed With Crypto Are Financial ‘Turducken’

One of the biggest fads of the Covid-19 retail-stock trading era is making a comeback—thanks in part to two buzzy trends. Special-purpose acquisition companies, or blank-check firms, have latched onto crypto treasury companies and emerging technologies like quantum computing that are benefiting from President Donald Trump’s “America First” rhetoric. Some researchers are already warning that many everyday investors betting on these companies are liable to lose money.

“It all looks like turducken, where we’re just putting one thing inside of another,” says Peter Atwater, founder of Financial Insyghts, which advises institutions on consumer sentiment, financial markets and the ...