On October 15, 2026, MSCI, originally known as Morgan Stanley Capital International, announced the results of its consultation on the eligibility of non-operating companies for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes.
MSCI said it would implement the proposal first set out on August 3, 2026, with minor modifications. The changes will be applied as part of the November 2026 Index Review and take effect as of the close of trading on November 30, 2026. The final list of affected securities is scheduled for publication on November 11 with the November review announcement.
Strategy (the company formerly known as MicroStrategy) and Japan’s Metaplanet appear on MSCI’s list of current constituents that could be affected. Both are large corporate holders of Bitcoin. Strategy held 848,250 BTC as of October 11, 2026, according to its October 12 SEC filing, with an aggregate purchase price of approximately $64.00 billion and an average purchase price of $75,444 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees. Meanwhile, Metaplanet held 44,000 BTC as of September 30, 2026, after a third-quarter net addition of 1,000 BTC.
The UK-listed uranium holder Yellow Cake, Iceland’s Skel fjárfestingafélag and Upexi are also on the potential-deletion list, and several other digital-asset treasury companies sit on a watchlist. Appearing on the list is not a final decision: nothing is confirmed until MSCI publishes its final list on November 11.
From a narrow digital-asset proposal to a broader quantitative screen
MSCI first examined digital-asset treasury companies in 2025. It proposed excluding issuers whose digital-asset holdings represented 50% or more of total assets, on the grounds that those firms shared characteristics with investment funds, which are already barred from the indexes. On January 6, 2026, MSCI announced it would not implement that exclusion as part of the February 2026 Index Review. It said it would instead open a broader consultation on the treatment of non-operating companies generally.
In the interim, MSCI maintained special measures for the companies on its preliminary list of digital-asset treasury firms. Those measures, announced on October 10, 2025, included a freeze on increases to the number of shares, foreign inclusion factor and domestic inclusion factor, as well as deferral of additions and size-segment migrations. They will be discontinued effective with the November 2026 Index Review. Going forward, eligibility for all such companies will be assessed under the new non-operating framework.
On August 3, 2026, MSCI launched the formal consultation and invited feedback through September 30, 2026, saying it expected to announce results on or before October 16. The October 15 decision adopted the framework with minor modifications.
Bitcoin holdings sit at the center of the discussion
According to BitcoinTreasuries data, Strategy remains the largest publicly listed corporate holder of Bitcoin. According to its Form 8-K filings, the company acquired 250 BTC between October 5 and October 11, 2026, for an aggregate $21.5 million at an average price of $86,194, bringing total holdings to 848,250 BTC as of October 11.
The week before, it purchased 334 BTC between roughly September 28 and October 4 for approximately $28.7 million. Aggregate purchase cost for the full position stood at about $64.00 billion, or $75,444 per bitcoin inclusive of fees. The company simultaneously maintained a USD Reserve of $4.88 billion and additional USD Cash balances in the hundreds of millions, used in part for preferred-stock dividends, interest, and selective repurchases of its STRC preferred shares, according to the Form 8-K filing.
Meanwhile, Metaplanet’s holdings reached 44,000 BTC as of September 30, 2026. During the third quarter, the company sold 10,000 BTC for approximately ¥124.7 billion (roughly $790 million at prevailing rates) at an average of about ¥12.47 million per bitcoin, then purchased 11,000 BTC for approximately ¥149.9 billion (roughly $950 million) at a higher average price.
The net addition of 1,000 BTC lifted the total from the prior level and placed Metaplanet as the second-largest publicly listed corporate Bitcoin holder behind Strategy. The company has stated that it intends to keep roughly 85–90% of total assets in Bitcoin, with the remaining 10–15% available for strategic investments and income-generating assets, while generally limiting Bitcoin-related borrowing to below about 10% of the net asset value of its Bitcoin holdings.
These balance-sheet concentrations are the quantitative backdrop against which MSCI’s screens operate. The methodology itself does not reference Bitcoin or any specific asset class by name.
The two-step test described by MSCI
MSCI’s October 15 announcement describes the process clearly. In addition to investment funds, business development companies and other passive investment vehicles already ineligible for the Global Investable Market Indexes, non-operating companies will now include “other corporate issuers with similar characteristics identified through new quantitative screens.”
MSCI’s consultation paper describes those characteristics as creating value by accumulating and holding non-operating assets, generating little cash from running an actual business, performance driven by market movements, and reliance on external capital to grow.
Ineligible issuers are identified in two steps:
First, an initial core screen determines whether an issuer is a company with substantial operating assets. Companies that clear this threshold remain eligible under the non-operating rules without further scrutiny.
Second, for issuers that fail the core screen, an exclusion screen based on five non-industry-specific financial ratios is applied. A security becomes ineligible if it is flagged on four or more of the five ratios.
Buffers apply to both the eligibility thresholds of the financial ratios and the timing of index inclusion and removal. Non-constituents are ineligible for addition if they fail the ineligibility screen in either of their two most recent annual filing periods. Current constituents are removed only if they fail the ineligibility screen in each of the two most recent annual filing periods. MSCI may also use the most recent interim filing if available.
Simulation results and the evolving list of names
In the August consultation paper, MSCI applied the proposed screen to the MSCI ACWI Investable Market Index using data as of May 2026. Three companies were identified as potential deletions: Strategy (free-float-adjusted market capitalization cited at approximately $23.93 billion in that simulation), Yellow Cake (approximately $1.81 billion), and Metaplanet (approximately $654 million). Additional names, including SharpLink, appeared on a proposed watchlist.
The potential-impact list published alongside the October 15 decision, prepared with financial data as of September 30, 2026, and market values around early October, continues to flag Strategy and Metaplanet among others for possible deletion at the November review. Reporting on that list has also named Yellow Cake, the Icelandic firm Skel fjárfestingafélag, and Upexi among potential deletions, with a larger group of digital-asset treasury companies and certain investment holding companies placed on the watchlist. The final determination remains subject to the November 11 announcement.
Market reaction and flow estimates
MSCI’s announcement landed after U.S. markets closed on October 15. Strategy shares (MSTR) fell about 2.6% in premarket trading on Friday, October 16, and closed at $136.83, down 9.56% from $151.29, on volume of roughly 31.8 million shares against a recent average near 21.9 million, according to Yahoo Finance data. The session was weak more broadly: the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.14%, and MSTR carries a five-year beta above 3.5, so not all of the decline can be pinned on MSCI.
Strategy is classed as a U.S. large-cap company in MSCI’s consultation paper and sits in indexes including MSCI World. Metaplanet is classed as a small-cap Japanese company.
Analyst estimates of potential passive selling associated with Strategy’s exclusion from MSCI indexes have circulated at roughly $2.8 billion. That figure originated with earlier JPMorgan research prepared in connection with the prior digital-asset proposal and has been cited in subsequent coverage of both the August consultation and the October decision, as reported by Reuters.
Strategy itself has previously noted that funds tracking MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes held approximately 13 million of its shares, or about 3.1% of basic shares outstanding. Actual flows, if any deletion occurs, would depend on free-float-adjusted weights at the time of removal and the rebalancing behavior of tracking funds.
A September 30, 2026 paper published by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, “Wall Street’s Invisible Committee” by Conner Brown, examined the growth of assets following index-provider benchmarks and the implications of methodology changes that can reallocate capital. The paper noted that MSCI alone reports more than $20 trillion benchmarked to its indexes and discussed the sequence of MSCI’s digital-asset and non-operating-company proposals, including the May 2026 simulation that flagged Strategy, Metaplanet and Yellow Cake.
It argued that categorical exclusions from broad-market indexes should rest on transparent, reproducible criteria and that values-based or business-model screens are better suited to clearly labeled opt-in products. The paper remains one of several public comments submitted during the consultation window.
Company responses during the consultation period
Strategy submitted a formal response during the consultation window. In a letter dated August 31, 2026, signed by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and Chief Executive Phong Le, the company described the proposed test as discriminatory, arbitrary, and misguided.
It argued that the terms “operating” and “non-operating” lack fixed meaning under U.S. GAAP or IFRS and that Strategy operates an enterprise-analytics software business in addition to its Bitcoin treasury activities. The letter stated that the proposal would have no meaningful impact on Strategy’s business but would harm MSCI’s reputation as a neutral index provider. MSCI proceeded with the framework after the consultation closed.
Scope, timing, and what remains to be determined
The methodology applies across the Global Investable Market Indexes family. Companies already excluded on legal-form grounds remain excluded, and the new quantitative screens extend the same treatment to corporate issuers whose reported financials meet the non-operating criteria. The screen is asset-class neutral, which is why a uranium holder such as Yellow Cake appears alongside the Bitcoin treasury companies.
A company removed under the screen would exit the GIMI family. Under the consultation proposal, a deleted issuer remains ineligible for re-addition until the next annual filing review. Because the test relies on annual filings, and MSCI says it may also use the latest interim filing, balance-sheet changes made in recent weeks, such as Metaplanet’s revised allocation policy, may not be reflected in the November list.
Also Read: Strategy (MSTR) Price Prediction 2026, 2027-2030: How High Can Bitcoin Lead the Stock?
