MSCI’s Crypto Purge: Why Ditching Digital Treasury Holdings from Indexes Sparks Outrage
MSCI just fired a shot across the bow of corporate crypto adoption—and the market is firing back.
The index giant's decision to strip cryptocurrency holdings from its corporate treasury benchmarks isn't a quiet tweak. It's a declaration. By redrawing the lines of what counts as a 'legitimate' asset, MSCI is effectively telling mainstream finance that Bitcoin on a balance sheet belongs in the speculative fringe, not the institutional core.
The Index Effect, Reversed
For years, inclusion in a major index acted as a golden ticket—validation that triggered billions in passive fund flows. Now, that mechanism works in reverse. Excluding crypto treasuries doesn't just reflect a neutral stance; it actively disincentivizes public companies from exploring digital asset strategies. Why risk shareholder scrutiny for an asset your benchmark provider pretends doesn't exist?
A Strategy Clash in Plain Sight
The backlash from crypto-forward funds and analysts was immediate and fierce. They see this as a legacy finance move—a failure to acknowledge a fundamental shift in how companies manage and diversify reserves. It's a bet against innovation, wrapped in the dry language of methodology updates. One fund manager called it "portfolio management with blinders on."
This isn't just about a few lines of code in an index model. It's a power play over narrative control. By sidelining crypto, MSCI reinforces the old guard's playbook while the new one is being written in real-time—on-chain.
Finance loves its rules, right up until those rules start costing it money.
Strategy says the proposal is discriminatory, arbitrary, and has zero positive effect
The company warned that implementing the proposal’s 50% threshold is discriminatory, arbitrary, and has zero positive effect. It singles out digital asset businesses while leaving untouched companies in other industries with similarly concentrated holdings in oil, timber, gold, media and entertainment, and real estate.
Additionally, Strategy stated that such a move would disrupt market stability. The leading corporate holder of bitcoin is urging MSCI to consider DATs as operating entities that contribute to economic progress and innovation.
Strategy also claimed that the proposal is believed to conflict with US policy. President TRUMP signed an executive order to promote the growth of digital financial technology. The administration also established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and promoted the inclusion of digital assets in 401(k) plans.
The company also requested that MSCI provide further consultation. “MSCI should allow time for the digital asset industry and DATs to evolve and gain their footing before proposing broad-stroke rules and criteria. At a minimum, MSCI should not take such a consequential step without engaging in further consultation,” the letter read.
Besides Strategy, Strive, a structured-finance company listed on Nasdaq, is fighting MSCI’s proposal to exclude Bitcoin-heavy companies from major global equity benchmarks.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, the firm that holds over 7,500 Bitcoins sent a letter this week to Henry Fernandez, MSCI’s CEO, stating that the proposed exclusion WOULD violate the “long-established principle of index neutrality.”
According to analysts, Strategy could see up to $2.8 billion of its stock liquidated under MSCI’s proposal. The company was added to MSCI’s indices in May 2024 and has been included for approximately a year and a half.
Strategy adds over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin in two months
Strategy has continued its aggressive accumulation approach through November and December 2025. In November, the company added a total of approximately 9,062 BTC across several transactions, including a major purchase of 8,178 BTC for $835.6 million at an average price of $102,171 per coin.
The company added 130 BTC for $11.7 million early this month, reaching a symbolic 650,000 BTC milestone, valued at roughly $58.5 billion at the time. The pace accelerated slightly later in the month with a blockbuster purchase of 10,624 BTC for $962.7 million between December 1 and 7 at $90,615 per coin.
This brought the total holdings to 660,624 BTC, acquired for approximately $49.35 billion at an average cost of $74,696 per BTC.
In a recent statement, CEO Phong Le said that Bitcoin sales are possible in extreme situations, such as a 95% price drop that would trigger margin calls. This goes against Saylor’s long-held “never sell” MANTRA and has led to speculation about an unimaginable fire sale of their 3% share of the total Bitcoin supply. The company’s mNAV is hovering near 1.0, and shares have dropped 50% since October.
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