MSCI proposes removing Bitcoin treasury companies Strategy and Metaplanet from indexes

MSCI, the firm whose indexes quietly dictate where trillions of dollars in passive investment flows end up, wants to kick out companies whose primary business model is buying and holding Bitcoin. A new consultation proposal from the index provider would classify firms like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), Metaplanet, and uranium holding company Yellow Cake as “non-operating companies,” making them ineligible for inclusion in MSCI’s Global Investable Market Indexes. How the screening works MSCI’s proposed methodology uses a two-step process. First, companies are evaluated on “operational asset intensity,” essentially measuring whether a firm’s balance sheet reflects an actual operating business or just a pile of accumulated assets. Companies that trip that first wire then face a gauntlet of five financial ratios designed to assess whether they generate revenue the old-fashioned way. Fail four out of five, and you’re out. A simulation MSCI ran in May 2026 projected exactly three companies getting the boot from the MSCI ACWI IMI Index: Strategy, Metaplanet, and Yellow Cake PLC. All three companies exist primarily to raise capital and use it to accumulate a single non-operational ass...