The decision to add MicroStrategy, announced late Friday by Nasdaq Global Indexes, represents a major stamp of institutional acceptance for its controversy-courting founder, Michael Saylor, whose disdain for Wall Street convention has helped spur a 500% rally in its shares this year and made him a hero to Bitcoin bulls. The company started out as a maker of enterprise analytics software more than three decades ago but gained renown and became vastly more valuable since it started amassing Bitcoin hand-over-fist in 2020.
MicroStrategy, the dot-com-era software maker whose metamorphosis into a leveraged bet on Bitcoin has transfixed Wall Street, is joining the Nasdaq 100 Index, the benchmark’s overseer said Friday. Software company Palantir Technologies and Axon Enterprise, a maker of Tasers and police body cameras, will also be added.
Illumina, Super Micro Computer and Moderna will be removed from the Nasdaq 100. The changes will be effective prior to market open on Monday, Dec 23.
