Shares of MicroStrategy surge as bitcoin proxy set to be added to Nasdaq-100 index

Shares of MicroStrategy were higher Monday after Nasdaq announced the bitcoin proxy will join the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 index.

The stock was last lower by less than 1%, after jumping as much as 7% earlier.

Nasdaq rebalances its Nasdaq-100 index every year. The companies flagged for inclusion are mostly based on the market cap rankings as of the final trading day of November. The stocks also need to meet a liquidity requirement and have a certain number of free floating shares.

The index inclusion, which takes effect Dec. 23, comes after MicroStrategy’s massive surge this year. In 2024, the stock is up 547%, far outpacing the S&P 500’s 26.9% advance, as the price of bitcoin scales to all-time highs. Bitcoin last traded around $105,900.66, up 2.6% on the day.

The addition also means MicroStrategy will be included in the popular Invesco QQQ Trust ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq-100. This will likely lead to passive inflows for MicroStrategy stock, potentially giving it another boost.

Michael Saylor, the company’s founder and chairman, also announced on social media site X on Monday morning that MicroStrategy has bought an additional 15,350 BTC for about $1.5 billion, or roughly $100,386 per coin. It now holds 439,000 bitcoin.

MicroStrategy has been building its bitcoin reserves for years, making it a proxy for the digital currency.

“MSTR’s Bitcoin buying program is unprecedented on street, and makes it the largest corporate owner of Bitcoin (2% of supply equivalent to $44Bn market value),” Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani wrote Monday. “Inclusion in Nasdaq100 further improves MSTR’s market liquidity, further expanding its capital flywheel and Bitcoin buying program.”

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