The Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) is calling for a Congressional probe into index provider MSCI and its index eligibility standards for public companies, after the firm revived a proposal that would cut digital asset treasury companies Strategy and Metaplanet from its indexes and place SharpLink on a delisting watchlist. The proposal concerns inclusion in MSCI benchmarks, not a company's listing on a stock exchange. Inclusion in MSCI's stock market indexes is a direct route to trillions of dollars in American retirement savings, and the Bitcoin think tank argues that MSCI is wielding undue power to shut Strategy and other asset-heavy firms out of capital flows.

Why firms don't want to be dropped from MSCI

Conner Brown's September 30 BPI paper landed on the same day the public comment window on MSCI's proposal closed, with a decision due on October 16. Brown argued that when an investor buys a “passive” index fund, it is a private company's committee—not the fund manager—that decides what counts as “the market.” Just three firms—MSCI, S&P Dow Jones Indices and FTSE Russell—set the benchmarks that 54% of all long-term fund assets in the United States follow, and $21 trillion is benchmarked to MSCI's indexes alone.

Brown frames that scale as the core problem. When an index provider adds or removes a single company, every fund tracking the benchmark is forced to rebalance, causing individual stocks to gain or lose financial backing without any fund manager or investor taking part in the decision. The BPI document contends that index providers carry a passive label while making active decisions with little oversight, because they are not currently regulated as investment advisers.

MSCI's neutrality faces scrutiny

MSCI has long maintained that it is a neutral entity, telling the SEC in 2022 that it “expresses no opinion or view as to whether any market, company, strategy or investment is good or bad.” In 2024, it told congressional investigators that an index “is simply a mathematical calculation” that “does not, and cannot, channel investments.”

Brown pointed to MSCI's September 2025 proposal to remove any company holding at least half of its assets in Bitcoin or other digital assets as evidence that the provider makes discretionary decisions. After pushback, MSCI shelved that plan in January 2026, announcing that it would drop the digital-asset-treasury exclusion criteria and instead open a broader consultation on “non-operating companies.”

That broader consultation arrived in August 2026, laying out a methodology that, when applied to the ACWI IMI index using May 2026 data, would cut Strategy, UK uranium holder Yellow Cake and Japan's Metaplanet, while three more companies—including Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink—would land on a public watchlist, as Cryptopolitan reported.

Brown echoes the objection Strategy raised in rejecting MSCI's “operating assets” category: the term is not defined under U.S. GAAP or IFRS. Strategy, which has laid out its position on its own website, called the proposal “misguided” and a “pretext for targeting Digital Asset Treasury Companies,” while arguing the impact is minor because MSCI GIMI-linked funds hold only about 3.1% of its shares.

The paper also flagged metadata embedded in the public PDF for the August 2026 consultation as “concrete evidence of continuity and potentially shared purpose between the two consultations,” writing that it “warrants asking whether its broader language carried forward the earlier intentional effort to remove those companies.”

Why BPI is asking for Congress action

Brown is urging lawmakers to scrutinize what the paper describes as discretionary exclusions, citing historical precedent for Congress examining MSCI's index decisions. A 2023 House select committee investigation faulted MSCI and BlackRock over investments in blacklisted Chinese firms, and a follow-up report in 2024 claimed MSCI indexes channeled $3.7 billion into Chinese entities accused of human rights abuses and military ties.

Brown's proposed remedy is a presumption of inclusion for lawful, liquid, investable equities in broad-market benchmarks, with any values-based screening moved to clearly labeled opt-in indexes.

MSCI says the comment period closed on September 30, with results expected on or before October 16 and any approved changes folded into the November 2026 index review. The company stresses that no change is guaranteed, making the consultation outcome and any final methodology the next developments to watch.

Source: Cryptopolitan