Strive Challenges MSCI Proposal to Exclude Bitcoin Treasury Companies, Urges ‘Future Qualification Path’

Strive, the fifth-largest Bitcoin treasury company, has submitted a pointed critique of MSCI’s proposal to remove crypto treasury companies from its global indexes, calling on the index provider to define “operating assets” and to create a “future qualification path” for firms seeking to remain eligible.

In its feedback on the proposal, Strive acknowledged that MSCI’s 2026 framework represents a “material improvement” over the 2025 version, which directly targeted crypto treasury companies for exclusion.

“The current proposal asks a better question: when does a public corporation cease to be an operating company and become, in economic substance, an investment vehicle?” Strive said in its submission. “We think MSCI is now asking the right question but has yet to supply a rule capable of answering it.”

In other words, the review is no longer framed as a blanket exclusion of crypto treasury companies as a class, but as an attempt to determine, company by company, whether a firm’s economic substance resembles that of an investment vehicle.

The distinction carries practical weight: MSCI’s global benchmarks are tracked by passive funds and ETFs, and only constituent stocks appear in the portfolios those products hold, which is why eligibility has become the central question of the review.

Strive: Bitcoin Treasury Firms Are Operating Companies

Strive asked MSCI to define what it means by an “operating asset” and argued that Bitcoin treasury companies fit the profile of an operating company, citing Strategy’s digital credit products tied to Bitcoin ($BTC) reserves.

“Companies that issue digital credit belong on the operating side of that line,” the firm said, adding that such companies use balance sheet assets as inputs, apply continuing financial and risk-management processes to them, and produce differentiated financial claims with payment and risk characteristics that differ from the underlying assets.

Strive’s position effectively places digital credit issuers alongside insurers, banks, and other financial firms that hold assets on their balance sheets and transform them into new financial products.

Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, is the most prominent name affected by the proposal, making the outcome of this classification debate consequential well beyond Strive’s own index status.

Will MSCI Keep Bitcoin Treasury Companies in Its Indexes?

Strategy’s lineup of preferred stocks — STRC, STRF, STRK, and STRD — pays bi-monthly and quarterly dividends, and there is a proposal for the preferred shares to offer daily interest. The digital credit is backed by Strategy’s substantial Bitcoin and cash reserves to support uninterrupted yield payouts. When shortfalls are foreseen, Strategy has opted to sell part of its Bitcoin to replenish its cash reserves.

Strive said it follows the same playbook, holding more than $2 billion worth of Bitcoin in reserve. In its view, this model fits the definition of an operating company, just like any insurer, bank, or other financial firm.

TD Securities has made a similar argument against the MSCI proposal.

“The primary product is not Bitcoin itself, but rather differentiated forms of Bitcoin-backed exposure tailored to varying investor preferences for risk, duration, leverage, yield and liquidity,” the firm said. “That strikes us as a corporate activity, not a passive one.”

Decision Expected by Mid-October

Under MSCI’s current framing, companies that buy and hoard assets — including crypto assets — such as Strategy are “non-operating” and should be removed from its indexes. The index provider put the proposal forward last month and opened a feedback window that is set to close at the end of September.

MSCI plans to release its final decision by mid-October after reviewing feedback from market participants, and to rebalance indexes in November if the changes are adopted.

Rebalancing is when index changes take effect: funds and ETFs that track MSCI’s benchmarks update their holdings to match the revised constituent lists, so a November adoption would be the point at which any exclusion flows through to passive portfolios.

Strive maintains that MSCI should define “operating assets” and, at minimum, offer a “future qualification path” that would allow affected companies to make the adjustments needed to qualify.

It remains unclear whether MSCI will withdraw the proposal next month, but the decision would have significant consequences for the crypto treasury segment and shape the composition of the index provider’s global benchmarks. Because the framework applies company by company, the test MSCI ultimately settles on would set the classification standard for the entire crypto treasury segment.