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BITCOIN PAYS BIG DIVIDENDS FOR THE COMPANY FORMERLY KNOWN AS MICROSTRATEGY

The former MicroStrategy marked its fourth-quarter earnings release with a shiny new rebrand - the company will now just be called "Strategy."

The rebrand, and new logo featuring the stylized bitcoin "B", marks its complete shift to focus on the world's largest cryptocurrency. In the announcement, Strategy called itself "the world’s first and largest Bitcoin Treasury Company."

The move to buy up bitcoin BTC=, made in 2020, so far seems to be paying off for Michael Saylor-founded Strategy.

From 2020 to date, shares of the company have soared over 2,000% as the price and popularity of bitcoin rose. Those gains recently earned it a spot in the Nasdaq 100 .NDX.

Many investors looked at the company as an easy way to gain exposure to crypto without holding it themselves - but Strategy might have been the better bet after all. Over the past five years, bitcoin has gained about 900%.

The S&P 500 .SPX, meanwhile, has notched gains of about 82%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC is up about 107%.

As per a recent filing, Strategy owns 471,107 bitcoin bought at an average cost of $64,511 per bitcoin.

That's 2.2% of the total bitcoin supply of 21 million, just behind the 2.8% held by the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF IBIT.O

(Lisa Mattackal)

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FOR THURSDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:

PAYROLLS OPENING ACT: JOBLESS CLAIMS, LAYOFFS, LABOR COSTS/PRODUCTIVITY - CLICK HERE

S&P 500, NASDAQ EDGE UP EARLY AS MEGACAPS GAIN - CLICK HERE

BENCHMARK TREASURY YIELD FLIRTING WITH THE CLOUDS - CLICK HERE

HERE COMES THE BOE... - CLICK HERE

GERMAN FISCAL EASING SCENARIOS: MODEST LIFT OR BOOST? - CLICK HERE

JAPAN: SMALL (AND MEDIUM) IS BEAUTIFUL - CLICK HERE

BUY EUROPE: STOXX, FTSE SCALE NEW PEAKS - CLICK HERE

BEFORE THE BELL: MIXED BANK EARNINGS, BOE AWAITED - CLICK HERE

FOCUS SWINGS BACK TO RATE MOVES, COMPANY EARNINGS - CLICK HERE