MSCI’s new index screen revives Strive’s Bitcoin treasury concerns
The current consultation is broader than last year's Bitcoin-specific plan; Strive's published letter addressed the earlier plan.
MSCI is consulting on a new index eligibility screen for companies it considers non-operating. The August 2026 proposal is not a Bitcoin-only exclusion. It would first examine operating assets, then apply five financial ratios to companies that fail the initial test. A company would fail the second screen if flagged on at least four of those ratios. MSCI says feedback is due September 30, results are expected by October 16, and any adopted change would enter the November 2026 index review.
Why Bitcoin treasury companies are watching
MSCI’s consultation uses May 2026 data to illustrate possible outcomes. Its simulated deletion list includes Bitcoin holders Strategy and Metaplanet, along with Yellow Cake, a uranium investment company. These are modeled results, not completed removals. The proposal gives existing index members a two-period buffer before a deletion, so a single failed screen would not necessarily remove a current constituent.
Strive chief executive Matt Cole raised a related objection in a letter dated December 4, 2025. That letter addressed MSCI’s earlier idea to exclude companies whose digital-asset holdings exceeded half of their total assets. Cole argued that Bitcoin treasury companies can operate structured-finance businesses and that investors should be able to choose tailored index screens. MSCI decided in January 2026 not to implement that Bitcoin-specific rule and said it would study non-operating companies more broadly.
What this article corrects
An earlier version presented Cole as sending a new letter on September 25 and used Strive’s 2025 holding figure as if current. The reviewed primary records document the December 2025 letter and the August 2026 MSCI consultation, but not a new Strive letter on September 25. The earlier version also gave October 16 as the feedback deadline; MSCI lists that date for announcing results, with feedback due September 30. This correction does not claim Strive is on MSCI’s simulated deletion list or that any proposed exclusion has taken effect.