 
 
Shares in trading platform Robinhood Markets surged in after-hours trading after being included in the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) index. Robinhood (HOOD) jumped past $108 per share after closing Friday around $101, data from Yahoo Finance shows.
The S&P Dow Jones Indices said on Friday that HOOD will join the global index on September 22. This addition marks a watershed moment for the financial technology sector as the digital asset-focused company joins the ranks of the most influential American firms.
But the S&P 500 overlooked the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder Strategy, despite hopes of inclusion after the company posted one of the strongest quarters in its history, boosted by the rising value of its BTC stash and meeting all the requirements to be included in the benchmark.
Strategy Misses Out On S&P 500 Inclusion Despite Checking All Boxes
Last December, Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly known as MicroStrategy) entered the Nasdaq-100 Index — which tracks the 100 biggest companies by market capitalization listed on the tech-focused Nasdaq stock exchange.
But despite the Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company’s $94 billion market cap being large enough to meet the S&P’s criteria for inclusion and already being included in a major stock market index, it has been denied inclusion in the S&P 500 index.
 
S&P-listed companies must be based in the U.S. and have a market cap of at least $22.7 billion.
Shares of Strategy dropped nearly 3% in after-market trading. The company holds approximately $70 billion worth of Bitcoin and publicized the crypto treasury strategy that many other firms have since embraced.
S&P 500 Listing Leads To More BTC Exposure
Strategy’s inclusion in the S&P 500 would have been a huge milestone for the company and for the crypto industry at large, as it would have indirectly increased millions of equity investors’ exposure to Bitcoin and the asset’s mainstream acceptance.
Coinbase was the first crypto-focused firm to join the S&P 500 index in May. Block, a technology company founded by X co-founder Jack Dorsey, was also listed in the index in July.