By George Glover

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense, as the old adage goes.

That's the approach SoFi Technologies is taking to deal with an attack by a short seller, and it appears to be paying off for the fintech lender's shares.

SoFi stock rose 1.7% to $17.66 ahead of the opening bell. Futures tracking the S&P 500 climbed 0.5% ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting.

The move higher came after SoFi said it was considering pursuing legal action against Muddy Waters, which questioned its debt and business model on Tuesday. Shares in SoFi fell 1.5% following the report.

"The claims made in the Muddy Waters report demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of our financial statements and business," SoFi said. "We intend to explore potential legal action against Muddy Waters for the factually inaccurate and misleading report they shared about our business today."

Muddy Waters "stand to profit from their own misleading report," SoFi added. Short sellers benefit if a stock they're betting against plunges regardless of whether or not their report ends up being proven true.

Muddy Waters and SoFi didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron's.

SoFi CEO Anthony Noto is putting his money where his company's mouth is. Noto bought 28,900 shares in SoFi on Tuesday, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed. The position was valued at just over $500,000 as of Tuesday's closing bell.

Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com

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March 18, 2026 07:26 ET (11:26 GMT)

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