Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), Metaplanet (TYO:3350) and Sharplink (NASDAQ: SBET) got put on notice for MSCI exclusion as the index provider finalized rules on Thursday to potentially cut asset-heavy firms from its global equity indexes.
Strategy, Metaplanet, Sharplink and other asset-heavy firms from its global equity indexes, a change effective November 30 that threatens billions of dollars in passive demand for bitcoin treasury stocks.
“Non-operating companies,” per MSCI’s October 15 confirmation of its August proposal, will be ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes. The proposal passed with minor modifications and did not name any companies.
All eyes now turn to November 11, when any firm exclusions will be folded into the November 2026 Index Review.
Which firms will MSCI remove from its index?
The new rules confirmed by MSCI stretch its benchmark exclusion criteria to cover corporate issuers that behave like the investment funds, business development companies and other passive vehicles it already bars.
MSCI proposed a two-stage test to screen whether firms qualify to continue to be included in its index or not.
- The first test checks whether a company counts as a real business based on the amount of operating assets it holds.
- Issuers that fail the core test face a second test that scores companies across five financial ratios: operating asset intensity, expense intensity, cash flow, fair value intensity and capital dependence.
Firms need to pass on at least four of the five financial ratios to retain their eligibility card.
Firms already in the index have a buffer, only facing exclusion after failing the index’s screen in both of its most recent annual filings. Companies that are not yet in the index will be ineligible for inclusion if they have failed in either of their filings over the previous two years.
Are the new MSCI rules targeting corporate crypto reserve firms?
The MSCI simulation ran on May 2026 data put publicly traded firms with crypto reserves, Strategy, Metaplanet and Sharplink, on alert after they were flagged alongside other asset holding firms for deletion or watchlist designation.
Yellow Cake, a UK uranium holder, was also recommended for deletion in the simulation.
Strategy could see about $2.8 billion flow out of its stock if MSCI decides in November to drop the firm from its index, according to JPMorgan analysts. That potential outflow will result from a forced sell-off by funds tracking MSCI benchmarks.
The company has already refuted the scale of an unfavorable MSCI decision, arguing that MSCI GIMI-linked funds hold only about 3.1% of its shares.
Strategy’s MSTR stock closed Thursday trading at $151.29, while Metaplanet’s stock traded at 277 yen (about $1.75).
Saylor and allies keep pushing back
Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and CEO Phong Le signed a September letter calling the proposal “discriminatory, arbitrary, and misguided” and a “pretext” for targeting digital asset treasuries. The letter warned that it “would profoundly harm MSCI’s reputation as a reliable and neutral index provider.”
Saylor frames Strategy as an operating business. Originally MicroStrategy, it sells business intelligence software to clients including Coca-Cola and Porsche, and treats its Bitcoin treasury as a separate operating segment rather than an investment holding.
The Bitcoin Policy Institute escalated the dispute up to the Congress level in a September 30 paper by Conner Brown. BPI called on Congress to scrutinize MSCI’s power, noting that 54% of long-term US fund assets track benchmarks from just three providers and that roughly $21 trillion is benchmarked to MSCI alone, as Cryptopolitan reported.
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