Strategy's $55 Billion $BTC Bet Undeterred by Index Delisting Concerns, Says Michael Saylor

MSCI is consulting on excluding digital-asset-treasury companies (DATs) whose balance sheets are more than 50% crypto. The final decision will be announced Jan. 15 with changes taking effect in February. MSCI’s preliminary list contains about 38 companies including MicroStrategy, Riot Platforms and Marathon. BTC Markets exec Charlie Sherry said the odds favor exclusion, which would force index-tracking funds to sell and put meaningful pressure on affected stocks. JPMorgan analysts estimate MicroStrategy could lose roughly $2.8 billion if MSCI proceeds. It is unclear whether other index providers will follow, though clearer corporate classification rules could boost long-term institutional confidence.

Impact: High

Sentiment: Bearish

“When most of the value comes from a balance-sheet asset rather than the underlying business, MSCI treats that as outside the scope of a traditional equity benchmark,” Sherry said. “It’s a risk-management decision designed to keep indexes aligned with predictable business fundamentals.”

“This also marks a shift in tone from the past year. Crypto-heavy corporate strategies were applauded as a capital markets innovation. Now the large index providers are tightening their definitions, and it shows that the market is moving out of its everything is adoption phase and back toward a more conservative filter.”

A Wednesday note from JPMorgan analysts warned that Strategy could shed $2.8 billion
if the MSCI moves ahead, and roughly $9 billion of its estimated $56 billion market value is sitting in passive funds tracked by indexes, Bloomberg reports.