Bitcoin treasury company Strategy has blasted Morgan Stanley Capital International's (MSCI) proposal to exclude it from its Global Investable Market Indexes, calling the plan "misguided" and "flawed."

In a letter sent to MSCI on Monday, Strategy founder Michael Saylor and CEO Phong Le said the index provider was discriminating against digital asset businesses.

Earlier this month, MSCI announced it was consulting on a plan to define "non-operating companies" and make them ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes. Removing such companies would exclude firms like Strategy from indexes visible to a large pool of institutional investors. Index membership carries real weight for public companies: billions of dollars track MSCI benchmarks through passive funds and ETFs, so inclusion or removal can shift a stock's institutional ownership base and trading liquidity.

Strategy responded publicly to the proposal on Monday:

Strategy responded today to MSCI's proposed "non-operating company" exclusion. While not material to $MSTR, the proposal is misguided, flawed, and conflicts with established securities laws and accounting principles. Read our letter and share your support:

— Strategy (@Strategy) August 31, 2026

The latest proposal follows a 2025 MSCI plan, later withdrawn, that would have excluded from its indices all companies whose digital-asset holdings represent 50% or more of total assets. The back-to-back proposals come as Strategy's approach has inspired a wave of other public companies to adopt bitcoin treasury strategies, making index providers' treatment of such firms a broader question for the sector.

"MSCI's continued effort to discriminate against digital assets is misguided and calls into question MSCI's neutrality and reliability," Strategy's letter read.

It added: "The proposal, like the 2025 proposal that MSCI withdrew, is discriminatory, arbitrary, and misguided. If adopted, the proposal would have no meaningful impact on Strategy's business, but it would profoundly harm MSCI's reputation as a reliable and neutral index provider. Like the 2025 proposal, the current proposal should be withdrawn."

Strategy argued that MSCI is relying on unprecedented classifications to define Bitcoin as a "non-operating" asset. The company noted that it reports its Bitcoin business as an operating segment and its Bitcoin gains and losses as operating expenses.

The firm also said MSCI's methodology for targeting "non-operating companies" was "arbitrary and unexplained" and amounted to unfairly targeting digital asset treasuries.

Strategy further contended that it is an operating company, employing 1,500 people globally and actively using its Bitcoin to "create shareholder value."

Strategy — formerly MicroStrategy — is an enterprise software company that pivoted to buying and holding bitcoin in 2020. It initially purchased the cryptocurrency to protect shareholders but has since aggressively accumulated the asset and is now the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, with 845,050 bitcoins worth $65.8 billion at current prices.

Investors can buy Strategy's Nasdaq-listed stock (MSTR) to gain heightened exposure to bitcoin's performance. MSTR closed Monday trading 4% higher. Year-to-date, the stock is down 15%.

The outcome of MSCI's consultation is not yet decided; the provider withdrew its similar 2025 proposal after feedback, and market participants can watch whether this consultation meets the same fate or moves to formal rule changes.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.