What's in a name? A lot if it has “blockchain”

Abstract

We find that firms that change their corporate names to include buzzwords related to cryptocurrencies experience large and permanent valuation gains. We document cumulative abnormal returns of 30 percent in 3 days surrounding such name change announcements. These abnormal returns cannot be explained by industry factors and the small firm effect. The results are robust to outliers and to the choice of the expected returns model used to measure abnormal returns. The abnormal returns generated following cryptocurrency-related name changes are larger and more persistent than those generated following non-cryptocurrency-related name changes.