MSCI has opened a consultation that would bar “non-operating companies” from its Global Investable Market Indexes. The rule change appears to ensnare the two largest publicly listed bitcoin treasury firms, Strategy (MSTR) and Metaplanet (3350), and could compel index-tracking funds to sell their shares.
Applied retroactively to the MSCI ACWI IMI Index using crypto holdings as of May 2026, the proposed screen would have removed three companies, CoinDesk reported: Strategy, Metaplanet, and Yellow Cake, a London-listed uranium holder that is not a bitcoin firm. Strategy and Metaplanet are the biggest corporate bitcoin holders on public markets.
The proposal does not name cryptocurrencies. It relies on a two-step financial screen instead. A company passes if its operating assets exceed 50% of total assets. If they do not, an exclusion screen kicks in. That screen is built from five ratios: operating asset intensity, expense intensity, cash flow, fair value intensity, and capital dependence. Fail at least four of the five and you become ineligible. MSCI describes the targets as companies that “create value by accumulating and holding non-operating assets,” generate little cash from operations, and depend on outside capital to grow.
In practice, a firm’s bitcoin stack, not the word bitcoin, is what trips the test.
This is MSCI’s second pass at the issue. An earlier consultation, opened in October 2025, targeted “digital asset treasury” companies holding 50% or more of assets in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. That proposal named 39 companies. It triggered crypto market volatility and industry backlash. It was deferred; Strategy and Metaplanet dodged it. The new version drops the crypto-specific framing for the broader “non-operating” label, which also sweeps in non-crypto asset holders like Yellow Cake.
Strategy, led by executive chairman Michael Saylor, has accumulated 840,447 bitcoin since 2020. That stash is worth $53.18 billion at press time, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data cited by CoinDesk. It is the largest publicly listed bitcoin holder. Tokyo-listed Metaplanet holds 43,000 bitcoin, worth over $2 billion.
No dollar figure for the index-tracking assets tied to either stock appears in the article. The scale of potential forced selling is not yet known.
MSCI has invited feedback from market participants through Sept. 30. Results are expected roughly two weeks later, on Oct. 16. Any adopted changes would be folded into the November 2026 index review.
The article does not include statements from Strategy, Metaplanet, or an MSCI executive beyond the consultation document’s description. Whether the proposal is adopted remains open. MSCI frames it as a consultation, not a decision.
For index funds that track MSCI benchmarks on a passive basis, an exclusion would mechanically require selling the affected names at the next rebalance. Active managers face no such obligation.
Holders, as ever, are divided.
