Overview
- MSCI adopted a two-step “non‑operating company” test on Thursday that first checks whether a firm has substantial operating assets and then applies five financial‑ratio screens, with exclusion triggered when a company fails the operating‑assets test and at least four ratio tests.
- The index provider will publish the list of potentially affected constituents on November 11 and will make any removals effective after the close of trading on November 30.
- In a May simulation of the proposed method MSCI flagged Strategy (MSTR), Metaplanet and Yellow Cake as possible deletions, but those firms remain candidates rather than confirmed removals until the November review.
- Strategy has publicly contested the classification while continuing to buy Bitcoin, disclosing an additional 250 BTC that raised its reported holdings to 848,250 BTC, and says MSCI’s approach misapplies accounting labels to its treasury activity.
- Removal would force passive funds that track MSCI benchmarks to sell affected stock, a dynamic JPMorgan previously estimated could generate roughly $2.8 billion of outflows for Strategy under an earlier proposal and could make future equity financing for crypto‑treasury firms more costly.