Bitcoin hoarding company Strategy remains in Nasdaq 100

Dec 12 (Reuters) – Bitcoin stacking giant Strategy retained its spot on the Nasdaq 100 on Friday, maintaining its tenure on the benchmark for a year, as analysts raised questions about its business model.

Some market observers have suggested that Strategy’s pioneering bitcoin buying-and-holding business model, which has spawned dozens of imitators, is more akin to an investment fund.

Concerns have increased over the sustainability of crypto treasury companies, whose shares are highly sensitive to Bitcoin returns.

Nasdaq said Biogen, CDW Corporation, Globalfoundries, Lululemon Athletica, On Semiconductor and Trade Desk were removed from the tech-heavy stock market’s benchmark index.

New participants included Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Ferrovial, Insmed, Monolithic Power Systems, Seagate Technology and Western Digital.

Strategy started as software company MicroStrategy, but pivoted to investing in bitcoin in 2020. It was included in the Nasdaq 100 last December under the index’s technology subcategory.

Global index provider MSCI also expressed concerns about the presence of digital asset treasury companies in its benchmarks. MSCI is expected to decide in January whether Strategy and similar companies will be excluded from the scope.

The Nasdaq changes are expected to go into effect on December 22. The Nasdaq 100 index tracks the largest non-financial companies by market capitalization listed on the exchange.

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Ruchika Khanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and ‌Christian Schmollinger and William Mallard)