MSCI is considering new eligibility rules that could remove Strategy and Metaplanet from its Global Investable Market Indexes, potentially changing how publicly traded crypto treasury companies are treated by major benchmark providers.
The proposal focuses on companies whose balance sheets and financing models increasingly resemble investment vehicles rather than traditional operating businesses. Applying the proposed methodology to the MSCI ACWI IMI as of May 2026 would have resulted in three deletions: Strategy, Japan-listed Metaplanet and uranium investment company Yellow Cake PLC.
The consultation is still ongoing, meaning none of the removals have been finalized. MSCI is collecting feedback through the end of September and expects to announce its decision by October 16. Any approved changes are proposed to take effect during the November 2026 Index Review.
MSCI Takes Aim at Companies Built Around Asset Accumulation
At the center of the proposal is a new two-step test designed to distinguish operating companies from businesses that primarily create value by holding financial or other non-operating assets.
The first stage examines whether operating assets account for more than 50% of a company’s total assets. Companies that fall below that threshold would then face a second set of tests covering five areas: operating asset intensity, operating expenses, cash flow from business activity, exposure to fair-value changes and dependence on external financing.
A company that triggers at least four of those five flags could be classified as a non-operating company and become ineligible for MSCI’s Global Investable Market Indexes.
The framework is particularly relevant for the growing number of publicly traded companies whose main strategy is raising capital to accumulate assets such as Bitcoin.
Strategy has become the most prominent example of that model, using debt and equity financing to expand its Bitcoin holdings while its legacy software operations represent a smaller part of the company’s overall investment story.
Metaplanet has pursued a similar Bitcoin-focused approach in Japan, repeatedly tapping capital markets as it builds its corporate BTC holdings.
Under MSCI’s May simulation, both companies would have met the conditions for removal. Strategy was listed with roughly $23.9 billion in free-float-adjusted market capitalization, while Metaplanet’s figure stood at about $654 million.
The Rule Would Extend Beyond Bitcoin Treasury Companies
The proposal is not specifically aimed at cryptocurrency.
Yellow Cake PLC would also have been removed under the same methodology. The London-listed company offers investors exposure to uranium by holding physical uranium rather than operating a conventional mining or industrial business.
Its inclusion in MSCI’s simulation shows that the proposed classification is based on a company’s financial structure rather than the type of asset it accumulates.
That distinction could become important as more listed companies adopt treasury strategies built around Bitcoin, Ethereum, commodities or other financial assets.
SharpLink Would Be Put on a Watchlist
Not every company that fails the proposed tests would immediately disappear from MSCI indexes.
MSCI is proposing additional protections for existing constituents in an effort to reduce unnecessary index turnover. A company already included in the index would generally need to fail the relevant screens across two consecutive annual filings before being removed.
Companies that fail based only on their latest filing would instead be placed on a public watchlist.
In MSCI’s May 2026 simulation, SharpLink was among three companies that would have received that designation, alongside Taiwan’s Center Laboratories and Turkey’s Lydia Holding. SharpLink had a free-float-adjusted market capitalization of around $165 million in the simulation.
A second consecutive failure in a future annual review could then lead to removal.
This slower process is intended to prevent temporary changes in a company’s balance sheet from causing immediate index reshuffling. MSCI said the approach would favor persistent evidence of a change in business structure rather than reacting to a single reporting period.
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