MSCI is consulting on a proposal that would exclude “non-operating companies” from its Global Investable Market Indexes (GIMI), a change that would remove Strategy and Metaplanet under a May 2026 simulation. Uranium holding company Yellow Cake PLC would also be deleted.
MSCI, formerly known as Morgan Stanley Capital International, builds stock market indexes that fund managers around the world use to decide which stocks to hold and in what proportion. A change to eligibility rules can trigger forced buying or selling from index-tracking funds worth trillions of dollars, since those funds must match their holdings to whatever MSCI’s indexes contain.
What the Screen Targets
The proposed rule adds financial ratio tests to catch companies that behave like investment funds rather than operating businesses. A company first faces a core screen checking whether operating assets make up more than half of its balance sheet.
Companies that fail move to a second test covering five ratios, including operating asset intensity, cash flow, and reliance on outside capital to fund growth. Flunking four of five ratios would make a company ineligible.
Under this framework, Strategy’s Bitcoin-buying model, which primarily raises equity and debt to accumulate BTC rather than to fund software operations, would trip the exclusion criteria. The same logic applies to Metaplanet, the Tokyo-listed firm that has built the world’s third-largest corporate Bitcoin (BTC) treasury largely through share issuance.
Buffers and a Public Watchlist
MSCI wants to protect index stability by applying softer thresholds to current constituents than to companies seeking addition. A constituent would need to fail the screens across two consecutive annual filings before deletion, rather than just one.
Three additional companies, including Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink, would land on a new public watchlist under the May 2026 simulation. They failed the latest filing check only, so removal would require a second consecutive failure next year.
Yellow Cake, which holds physical uranium rather than an operating business, met the same exclusion criteria as the two Bitcoin treasury firms despite having no connection to crypto markets.
MSCI’s consultation period runs through September 30. The firm expects to announce results by October 16, with any changes taking effect during the November 2026 Index Review.
The outcome could set a precedent for how index providers treat the broader wave of public companies that have adopted digital assets as a primary treasury strategy.
Bitrue