MSCI Proposes a 50% Digital-Asset Threshold for Treasury Companies
MSCI expanded its consultation on digital-asset treasury companies and proposed excluding firms from its Global Investable Market Indexes when digital assets represented 50% or more of total assets. The proposal created a direct index-eligibility risk for Bitcoin treasury companies such as Strategy and Metaplanet.
On October 10, 2025, MSCI extended its consultation on how companies built around Bitcoin and other digital-asset treasuries should be treated in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes. The index provider proposed a concrete threshold: companies whose digital-asset holdings represented 50% or more of total assets could be excluded because some market participants viewed them as economically similar to investment funds, which are generally ineligible for the indexes.
The announcement transformed an abstract classification question into a potentially consequential market-structure issue. MSCI published a preliminary list of companies that could be affected and said it would continue limiting certain share-count, foreign-inclusion-factor, and size-segment changes for listed firms while the consultation proceeded. The consultation remained open through the end of 2025, with any resulting methodology changes proposed for the February 2026 index review.
The Bitcoin connection was particularly direct for corporate treasury companies whose strategy depended on raising equity or debt to accumulate bitcoin. Inclusion in widely followed indexes can generate passive investment demand, while exclusion can produce forced selling by funds that track those benchmarks. Strategy and Japan's Metaplanet had become prominent examples of companies whose market identity was increasingly tied to Bitcoin accumulation, making index eligibility a new source of financial-system risk for the treasury-company model.
The October announcement was not the beginning of MSCI's inquiry. MSCI had launched the consultation on September 12 after Metaplanet announced a large share offering intended largely to fund Bitcoin purchases. October 10 was nevertheless a distinct stage because MSCI introduced the 50% asset test and a preliminary impact list. In November, concern about potential forced selling became a major market story, and in January 2026 MSCI ultimately declined to implement the proposed exclusion at that time.