MSTR falls 2.9% after S&P 500 snub, Robinhood makes the cut

Key Takeaways

MSTR may be included in the S&P 500 Index in December, according to analysts. Strategy downplayed the impact of Nasdaq’s capital-raising restrictions for crypto firms.

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Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) stock, MSTR, was snubbed by the coveted S&P 500 Index, triggering a 2.9% price decline after market hours on the 5th of September.

Instead, Robinhood beat MSTR to the index.  

The market had anticipated that the leading Bitcoin corporate treasury holder would be included in the index, especially since it met all the necessary criteria.

However, those expectations were disappointed, and as a result, MSTR dropped to $326 following the announcement.

Will December favor MSTR?

Some of the inclusion requirements for the equity index include massive liquidity depth and being profitable for the past four quarters. 

But above all, the index’s ‘secret’ committee handling the inclusion process has the final say, noted a Bloomberg ETF analyst. 

“Why wasn’t $MSTR allowed into the S&P 500 Index despite meeting all the criteria? Because the ‘Committee’ said no.”

Now, some community members were pessimistic about MSTR’s chances of getting into the index during the next rebalancing window in December. But James Van Straten, a CoinDesk analyst, made a contrarian bet. 

“December it is for MSTR, same setup as Tesla.”

The inclusion would expand institutional investor interest and ETFs for MSTR.

In response, Michael Saylor, Founder of Strategy, slammed the index in a subtle X (formerly Twitter) post, comparing MSTR vs S&P 500 Index (SPY) returns. 

“Thinking about the S&P right now…”

Both MSTR and BTC outperformed SPY on annualized returns, per the chart shared by Saylor. 

Another hiccup for the firm was the recent Nasdaq proposal that some analysts claim may force crypto treasuries to get shareholders’ approval before raising capital.

However, the Strategy stated that the directive will not affect its capital plans. 

“Nasdaq’s new position on digital asset treasury formations doesn’t affect Strategy, our ATMs, or our other capital markets activities.”

That said, Strategy’s BTC holdings hit 636,505 BTC after adding 4K BTC recently. Unlike the massive 21K BTC scooped in July, the buying spree has slowed significantly in the second part of Q3.