This December 20th story corrects the CEO’s designation of executive as CFO.

Medha Singh and Bansari Mayur Kadar

(Reuters] – A number of companies such as Grab Holdings or BuzzFeed have had their shares plummet due to investors pulling the rug under stocks that were hyped by Wall Street this year’s maniacal blank-check transactions.

BuzzFeed shares, which were merged with 890 5th Avenue Partners blank-check company, plunged 40% after their Dec. 6 debut. Digital media company BuzzFeed raised $16million out of $288M in trust funds. 94% investors returned the money.

Grab Holdings has seen its market cap drop by half since Dec. 2, when it made its Nasdaq debut. This was following the record-breaking $40 billion merger of Grab Holdings with a blank check firm.

Edward Moya (Oanda’s senior market analyst) stated, “A lot more investors are now looking toward companies with proven track records, and that have shown history of delivering profits.” “The frenzy which drove some of the momentum seen earlier this year in SPACs has evidently gone.”

SPACs are shell companies which raise capital in an initial public offer (IPO). They then put that money into a trust to be used for merging with a private firm and making it public.

Investors are not aware of target companies before the IPO. SPACs frequently grant investors the right to recoup their initial investment to incentivize them to invest more.

Dealogic data revealed that 58% was the average redemption rate in fourth quarter, up from 48% a year prior. Investors’ high expectations are often not met by many companies.

In the case of Zoom Video Communications-backed event management software company Cvent, nearly 85% of investors redeemed their shares for cash two days before its debut, its filing showed.

Vacasa Vacation Rental Management Company received gross proceeds in excess of $340 Million from its December 8th debut. However, this figure is 145 million lower than it expected because of redemption.

Vacasa’s business has been well capitalized through the SPAC agreement, as more than half of its cash was retained in trust accounts.

SPACs became a frenzied market in February when investors began treating them like meme stocks. “Then Lucid crashed, and the SEC started issuing negative comments. SPACs began to fall out of favor,” stated Matthew Tuttle chief executive officer at Tuttle Capital Management LLC.

Last week, U.S. regulators stated that they are considering tightening regulations regarding how SPAC sponsors, directors, and underwriters structure fees, make projections, and disclose conflicts.

According to Vanda Research (NASDAQ:), SPACs have been among those that have experienced a decrease in investor participation.

After reaching a record-breaking high in February, the De-SPAC Index, which measures 25 of the largest blank-check mergers, has dropped to around 43% this year.

Merging with blank-check companies is still a common option. Renaissance Capital revealed in its annual review that 2021 was a record year with 604 SPACs raising $144 billion. The first quarter saw 62%, however.

Grab and BuzzFeed refused to comment. Cvent didn’t reply to a Reuters inquiry for comment.