Nasdaq announced the Nasdaq 4-year change, which now includes MicroStrategy, which has been in the spotlight for buying Bitcoin for 100 years. A recent check showed that MicroStrategy will become the 100th largest company on the Nasdaq 40. Its inclusion in the index will earn MicroStrategy a spot in Invesco’s QQQ Trust (QQQ), one of the world’s largest ETFs with more than $300 billion in AUM.
Bitcoin-centered MicroStrategy enters Nasdaq 100
MicroStrategy (MSTR) will soon be included in the world’s largest exchange-traded funds after becoming the first Bitcoin-centric company to make it to the Nasdaq-100 Index. The Nasdaq-100 Index tracks the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. It is packed with dominant market names such as Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Tesla and Costco. The price of bitcoin (BTC) made a modest contribution to earlier gains, topping $102,000 in the minutes following Nasdaq’s press release on Friday evening.
MicroStrategy’s market capitalization was about $92 billion on Nov. 29, the day Nasdaq recorded the market condition in preparation for the index’s annual rebalancing. That makes the Michael Saylor-led company the 40th-largest company in the Nasdaq 100 and its likely weight in the index is 0.47%, according to Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. By comparison, Apple – before this year’s rebalancing – had the index’s largest weight at just under 9%. Qualcomm had the 20th largest weighting at just over 1%.
Bitcoin’s place is critical
This addition will exponentially increase the Nasdaq 100’s exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), which MicroStrategy owns about $42 billion worth, and expose MSTR to billions in passive investments. Balchunas said ETFs tracking the Nasdaq 100 have more than $550 billion in assets under management. The largest is Invesco’s QQQ Trust (QQQ) with more than $300 billion in AUM. James Van Straten, senior analyst at CoinDesk, said
MicroStrategy’s inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 is probably the second biggest story of 2024 after the launch of US spot ETFs. These funds are typically buyers at any price level on a monthly basis and will be added to another buyer of MSTR when Michael Saylor continues to bid in the market (ATM) to dilute shareholders, but with a larger buyer base.
Balchunas’ colleague James Seyffart warns that MicroStrategy’s inclusion in the index could be short-lived. Because the company could face reclassification as a financial firm in March. Because its value comes almost entirely from its Bitcoin holdings. Not from its actual business operations. MicroStrategy’s founder and chief executive Michael Saylor has previously said he plans to turn the company into a “Bitcoin bank”. He said this would make the company less of a technology operation.
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