MSCI puts crypto treasury stocks under broader index screen

MSCI has adopted a new test for identifying “non-operating companies” in its global equity indexes, putting crypto treasury stocks under a broader financial-statement screen ahead of its November review.

The index provider announced the decision at 20:48 GMT on October 15. It will apply the methodology in the November 2026 Index Review, effective after the close on November 30. The timing matters because index inclusion can shape demand from funds that track MSCI benchmarks, but MSCI has not yet published the final list of securities that will be removed or placed under observation.

The central change is broader than cryptocurrency. Investment funds, business development companies and other passive vehicles were already ineligible. MSCI will now use quantitative screens to identify corporate issuers that it concludes share similar non-operating characteristics.

A two-step test replaces the crypto threshold

The framework first asks whether more than half of an issuer’s assets are operating assets. A company that clears that core screen remains eligible under this test. A company that does not is assessed on five ratios covering operating-asset intensity, expense intensity, operating cash flow, fair-value changes and dependence on external financing.

Under the August consultation, failing at least four of those five tests would make a company ineligible. MSCI’s October decision says it adopted the proposal with minor modifications; the final announcement describes the same core screen, five-ratio assessment and four-of-five trigger.

That structure replaces interim treatment introduced for companies whose digital assets represented 50% or more of total assets. Those temporary measures froze increases in share counts and inclusion factors and deferred additions and size migrations. MSCI says the restrictions will end with the November review, after which the broader methodology will govern those companies.

The distinction is important: holding bitcoin or ether above a fixed balance-sheet percentage is no longer, by itself, the stated exclusion rule. Eligibility instead turns on how MSCI classifies operating assets and applies several financial ratios across reporting periods.

Strategy and Metaplanet were simulation results, not final removals

MSCI’s August consultation included a simulation using MSCI ACWI Investable Market Index data as of May 2026. It indicated that Strategy, Metaplanet and uranium investment company Yellow Cake would have been deleted under the proposed screen. SharpLink, Center Laboratories and Lydia Holding would have entered a watchlist.

Those six outcomes were a historical simulation, not an October removal decision. The simulation used May index membership and the financial information then available; company balance sheets, index membership and MSCI’s final methodology may differ by the November review.

The Block separately reported that the new rules could affect Strategy, Metaplanet and SharpLink, while noting that the definitive affected-company list is due November 11. No reviewed primary record establishes that any crypto treasury company has already been removed.

November 11 is the next decision point

For existing constituents, MSCI designed buffers intended to limit turnover. The consultation said deletion would generally require failing the relevant screen across two consecutive annual filing periods, while a first failure could lead to watchlist treatment. Companies outside the indexes face a stricter entry test based on recent filings.

That lag means the rule’s adoption and an issuer’s actual deletion are separate events. The final constituent review on November 11 should establish which securities MSCI considers affected; implementation follows at the November 30 close.

MSCI previously declined in January to impose a narrower crypto-treasury exclusion, saying it needed a wider review of investment-oriented companies. The October decision completes that broader process without proving how much index-linked capital would trade any particular stock.

For crypto markets, the immediate development is therefore a change in equity-index methodology, not a forced-sale total or a judgment on bitcoin itself. Any estimate of passive outflows would require the final security list, current benchmark weights, assets tracking each affected index and assumptions about fund implementation. Those inputs are not established in the reviewed records.