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MicroStrategy shares jump as bitcoin proxy will join Nasdaq-100 index and ‘QQQ’ ETF

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Michael Saylor, chairman and CEO of MicroStrategy, speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami on April 7, 2022.

Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of MicroStrategy were higher Monday after Nasdaq announced the bitcoin proxy will join the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 index.

The stock last traded more than 5% higher in premarket trading.

Nasdaq rebalances its Nasdaq-100 index every year. The companies flagged for inclusion are mostly based on the market cap rankings as of the final trading day of November. The stocks also need to meet liquidity requirement and have a certain number of free floating shares.

The index inclusion, which takes effect Dec. 23, comes after MicroStrategy’s massive surge this year. In 2024, the stock is up 547% — far outpacing the S&P 500’s 26.9% advance — as the price of bitcoin scales to all-time highs. Bitcoin last traded around $104,650, up more than 1% on the day.

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MSTR year to date

MicroStrategy has been building its bitcoin reserves for years, making it a proxy for the digital currency. The company currently owns more than 420,000 bitcoins.

The addition also means MicroStrategy will be included in the popular Invesco QQQ Trust ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq-100. This will likely lead to passive inflows for MicroStrategy stock, potentially giving it another boost.

“MSTR’s Bitcoin buying program is unprecedented on street, and makes it the largest corporate owner of Bitcoin (2% of supply equivalent to $44Bn market value),” Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani wrote Monday. “Inclusion in Nasdaq100 further improves MSTR’s market liquidity, further expanding its capital flywheel and Bitcoin buying program.”

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Swiss government proposes tough new capital rules in major blow to UBS

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3 days ago

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June 6, 2025

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A sign in German that reads “part of the UBS group” in Basel on May 5, 2025.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

The Swiss government on Friday proposed strict new capital rules that would require banking giant UBS to hold an additional $26 billion in core capital, following its 2023 takeover of stricken rival Credit Suisse.

The measures would also mean that UBS will need to fully capitalize its foreign units and carry out fewer share buybacks.

“The rise in the going-concern requirement needs to be met with up to USD 26 billion of CET1 capital, to allow the AT1 bond holdings to be reduced by around USD 8 billion,” the government said in a Friday statement, referring to UBS’ holding of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds.

The Swiss National Bank said it supported the measures from the government as they will “significantly strengthen” UBS’ resilience.

“As well as reducing the likelihood of a large systemically important bank such as UBS getting into financial distress, this measure also increases a bank’s room for manoeuvre to stabilise itself in a crisis through its own efforts. This makes it less likely that UBS has to be bailed out by the government in the event of a crisis,” SNB said in a Friday statement.

‘Too big to fail’

UBS has been battling the specter of tighter capital rules since acquiring the country’s second-largest bank at a cut-price following years of strategic errors, mismanagement and scandals at Credit Suisse.

The shock demise of the banking giant also brought Swiss financial regulator FINMA under fire for its perceived scarce supervision of the bank and the ultimate timing of its intervention.

Swiss regulators argue that UBS must have stronger capital requirements to safeguard the national economy and financial system, given the bank’s balance topped $1.7 trillion in 2023, roughly double the projected Swiss economic output of last year. UBS insists it is not “too big to fail” and that the additional capital requirements — set to drain its cash liquidity — will impact the bank’s competitiveness.

At the heart of the standoff are pressing concerns over UBS’ ability to buffer any prospective losses at its foreign units, where it has, until now, had the duty to back 60% of capital with capital at the parent bank.

Higher capital requirements can whittle down a bank’s balance sheet and credit supply by bolstering a lender’s funding costs and choking off their willingness to lend — as well as waning their appetite for risk. For shareholders, of note will be the potential impact on discretionary funds available for distribution, including dividends, share buybacks and bonus payments.

“While winding down Credit Suisse’s legacy businesses should free up capital and reduce costs for UBS, much of these gains could be absorbed by stricter regulatory demands,” Johann Scholtz, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, said in a note preceding the FINMA announcement. 

“Such measures may place UBS’s capital requirements well above those faced by rivals in the United States, putting pressure on returns and reducing prospects for narrowing its long-term valuation gap. Even its long-standing premium rating relative to the European banking sector has recently evaporated.”

The prospect of stringent Swiss capital rules and UBS’ extensive U.S. presence through its core global wealth management division comes as White House trade tariffs already weigh on the bank’s fortunes. In a dramatic twist, the bank lost its crown as continental Europe’s most valuable lender by market capitalization to Spanish giant Santander in mid-April.

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