USDMSCI Proposal Puts Strategy, Metaplanet at Risk of Index Removal
New non-operating company screen broadens scrutiny beyond crypto treasury firms
TL;DR
- MSCI is consulting on a new methodology that could remove Strategy and Metaplanet from its Global Investable Market Indexes.
- A May simulation would have deleted Strategy, Metaplanet and Yellow Cake while placing three other companies on a watchlist.
- Feedback is open through September 30, with consultation results expected October 16 and possible changes no earlier than the November review.
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MSCI has opened a consultation on a new methodology for identifying “non-operating companies,” a proposal that could remove Strategy and Metaplanet from its Global Investable Market Indexes if adopted. The framework replaces MSCI’s earlier crypto-specific approach with a two-stage assessment of operating assets and financial ratios. A simulation using May 2026 data showed both Bitcoin treasury companies would have been deleted from the MSCI ACWI IMI, along with uranium investment company Yellow Cake, while no index composition has changed yet.
The proposal broadens MSCI’s scrutiny beyond companies holding large amounts of cryptocurrency. MSCI’s earlier consultation, opened in October 2025, targeted “digital asset treasury” companies with 50% or more of their assets held in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. That proposal identified 39 companies and triggered crypto market volatility and industry backlash before being deferred. MSCI said in January 2026 that it would not immediately exclude those companies “for the time being” and would instead examine the wider category of non-operating companies.
Strategy, which trades under MSTR, and Tokyo-listed Metaplanet, which trades under 3350, remain among the companies most exposed to the revised approach because of the scale of their Bitcoin holdings. Bitcoin Treasuries data cited in the source material showed that Strategy had accumulated 840,447 BTC worth $53.18 billion since beginning its purchases in 2020. Metaplanet had accumulated 43,000 BTC worth more than $2 billion. Yellow Cake’s inclusion in the simulation shows the proposed screen is not limited to cryptocurrency holders because the company holds uranium rather than Bitcoin.
The same May simulation would have placed SharpLink, Center Laboratories and Lydia Holding on a public watchlist rather than deleting them. Strategy was the largest company flagged for removal, with a free-float-adjusted market capitalization of $23.9 billion. JPMorgan analysts previously estimated that removing Strategy from MSCI indexes could result in about $2.8 billion in passive outflows, an estimate tied to the earlier index-removal debate rather than a confirmed outcome under the current proposal.
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How MSCI’s proposed two-step screen works
MSCI’s proposed methodology begins with a core test of whether a company has sufficient operating assets. A company whose operating assets account for more than half of total assets clears that first stage and receives no further scrutiny under the exclusion process. Companies that fail the core test move to a second-stage assessment based on operating asset intensity, expense intensity, cash flow, fair value intensity and capital dependence. MSCI would consider a company ineligible if it fails the core screen and triggers at least four of those five exclusion flags.
The initial operating-assets test and the later operating-asset ratio serve different purposes within the methodology. Passing the first-stage test ends the review, while companies that fail it are evaluated against the five exclusion measures. MSCI said the framework is aimed at businesses that “create value by accumulating and holding non-operating assets,” generate little cash from their actual operations and rely on outside capital rather than their operating businesses to grow.
Current index constituents would receive more protection from removal than companies seeking index eligibility. Existing constituents would need to fail the applicable screen across two consecutive annual filings before deletion, while companies not already included would face the stricter thresholds based on their latest filing. MSCI said the design is intended to reduce unnecessary index turnover and require persistent evidence that a company’s underlying business structure has changed.
“Only a sustained change in business structure triggers reclassification, while a briefer, one-off threshold miss does not,” MSCI said in the consultation document.
Consultation remains open before any index changes
MSCI has invited market participants to submit feedback through September 30, 2026, and expects to announce the consultation results on October 16, 2026. Any changes resulting from the process would be incorporated no earlier than the November 2026 index review if the proposal is adopted. Strategy, Metaplanet and the other companies identified by the simulation therefore face potential rather than confirmed exclusion, and the current composition of MSCI indexes remains unchanged while the consultation proceeds.
The new methodology marks a shift from MSCI’s earlier attempt to define digital-asset treasury companies through a cryptocurrency ownership threshold. The proposed framework instead evaluates whether an issuer has a sufficiently substantial operating business and whether its financial structure exhibits the characteristics MSCI associates with non-operating companies. Under the May simulation, that broader approach still captured Strategy and Metaplanet while also extending beyond Bitcoin-focused companies to Yellow Cake.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
