First Ever Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin Dividend

Good Morning Everyone,

Nasdaq-listed company BTCS has announced a world first corporate dividend that has the option of being payable in Bitcoin. They are calling it a Bividend.

The bividend will act as a typical dividend whereby share holders on the registry at the ex-dividend date, will be entitled to a dividend from the company which they can opt-in to having paid in bitcoin, or otherwise receive as normal in USD.

Interestingly, the divided is not the usual income & capital gains dividend that most would be familiar with. It is a "Return of Capital Distribution” dividend. Meaning there is no obligation for anyone receiving this to pay any tax based solely on it, as it is considered as “a distribution in excess of an entity’s current and accumulated earnings and profits”.

CEO Charles Allen stated the companies reasoning for the offering as follows:

“We want to reward our long-time shareholders for their continued support and encourage financial freedom by providing the means to enable direct ownership of Bitcoin and other digital assets.”

For now this unique dividend seems to be a one-off, and the company have not stated any clear plan for it to be adopted as a permanent standard.

“BTCS is very much in the growth phase. That said, the Company is evaluating the appropriateness of future Bividends.”

Clearly the development was received positively by traders & the market, with BTCS share price jumping 66% at the high, and closed up 47% on the news.

This is an interesting development, and it likely paves the way for other corporate entities to experiment with new and unique methods of capital distribution. It will likely attract plenty of attention and it certainly further legitimises the use of Bitcoin within traditional markets.

It’s important to me that i separate myself from the people that use any announcement to hype something up and give the impression that because of xyz -this thing is going to the moon.

After looking into what BTCS actually does as a business, i cannot honestly say it is of particular interest to me. It seems like they basically run a heap of nodes for so called “decentralized” Proof-of-stake blockchain protocols, or companies better said, and give investors a way to gain exposure to these companies in a traditional way.

The use of blockchain this and blockchain that on their website screams nothing positive to me. There is nothing special about a blockchain as a data structure on its own. It’s a term that has been way over used and leveraged to signal to investors that basically do not know what a blockchain is or does and essentially associate it with bitcoin, to raise capital and facilitate a flow of funds from the pockets of said unsophisticated investors that do not understand the technology they are considering investing in.

What is positive however and important to highlight, is the fact that they are choosing to distribute this capital in bitcoin. In a way that encourages participants to custody their own bitcoin, learn about what that means and involves, and likely learn more about the digital asset by doing so.

This can only be positive, and it will be interesting to see how the market continues to view this development in the lead up to, and post the companies first bitcoin dividend.

I hope you have a great day, and i’ll chat to everyone tomorrow.

AK

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