Bitcoin hoarding company Strategy remains in Nasdaq 100

Dec 12 (Reuters) – Bitcoin hoarding giant Strategy clung to its place in the Nasdaq 100 on Friday, continuing its year-long stint in the benchmark at a time where analysts have raised questions over its business model. Some market watchers have suggested Strategy's pioneering business model of buying-and-holding bitcoin, which has spawned dozens of copycats, more closely resembles that of an investment fund. Concerns have grown over the sustainability of crypto treasury companies, whose shares have proved extremely sensitive to bitcoin's gyrations. Nasdaq said Biogen, CDW Corporation, Globalfoundries, Lululemon Athletica, On Semiconductor and Trade Desk were removed from the tech-heavy exchange's benchmark index. New entrants included Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Ferrovial, Insmed, Monolithic Power Systems, Seagate Technology and Western Digital. Strategy started out as software company, MicroStrategy, but pivoted to bitcoin investing in 2020. It was included in the Nasdaq 100 last December under the index's technology sub-category. Global index provider MSCI has also raised concerns about the presence of digital-asset treasury companies in its benchmarks. MSCI is due to decide in January whether to exclude Strategy and similar companies. The Nasdaq changes are expected to take 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)

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