The debate surrounding global index eligibility for Bitcoin-heavy companies has intensified after Strive urges MSCI to scrap proposal excluding major BTC holders from its widely followed global benchmarks. As digital-asset exposure rises across public companies—with miners, treasury holders, and AI-infrastructure firms deeply intertwined with Bitcoin—Strive’s position marks one of the most forceful industry challenges to traditional index governance in years.
This detailed article explores exactly why Strive urges MSCI to scrap proposal excluding major BTC holders, how the rule would reshape index investing, what JPMorgan’s warning signals, and why sectors like AI, digital finance, and mining may face major structural consequences if the policy moves forward.
MSCI’s Proposed 50% Crypto Exposure Rule Explained
At the core of the dispute is MSCI’s plan to exclude any company whose crypto holdings exceed 50% of total assets. MSCI suggests that heavily Bitcoin-exposed companies are too volatile, too concentrated, or outside traditional risk norms to remain in blue-chip global benchmarks.
But according to Strive, this approach is misguided. By focusing on asset composition rather than business model fundamentals, MSCI risks writing out an entire new generation of technology-driven firms from mainstream investor access.
This is why Strive urges MSCI to scrap proposal excluding major BTC holders—arguing that the rule would distort markets, misrepresent emerging industries, and undermine long-term index accuracy.
Strive’s Warning Exclusion Would Shut Passive Investors Out of High-Growth Markets
In a formal letter to MSCI Chairman and CEO Henry Fernandez, Strive emphasized that excluding large Bitcoin-focused companies effectively blocks passive investors from participating in one of the fastest-growing financial ecosystems.
Index funds hold trillions in assets globally, meaning their composition heavily influences where investor money flows. If MSCI implements the 50% rule, entire categories of companies—miners, treasury-driven firms, infrastructure developers, and hybrid AI-compute operators—would be cut out automatically.
This restriction, according to Strive, is not only unfair but strategically harmful. Digital assets, Bitcoin-backed treasury models, and compute-driven AI infrastructure are emerging as core components of the future economy, not fringe sectors.
JPMorgan Warns Strategy Could Lose $2.8B Under MSCI Proposal
Adding fuel to the debate, JPMorgan analysts estimated that Strategy, one of the world’s most prominent publicly traded Bitcoin treasury companies, could lose as much as $2.8 billion if MSCI removes it from global indexes.
Strategy’s chairman, Michael Saylor, confirmed ongoing discussions with MSCI to prevent the exclusion, emphasizing that the proposal disproportionately harms companies that operate legitimately and transparently within evolving digital-asset markets.
This aligns with Strive’s stance: once again demonstrating why Strive urges MSCI to scrap proposal excluding major BTC holders, as the financial fallout would not only impact individual firms but also the passive investors relying on MSCI indexes to track global markets.
Strive CEO Matt Cole: MSCI Fundamentally Misunderstands Emerging Industries
Strive CEO Matt Cole argued that MSCI’s proposal is rooted in outdated assumptions about what Bitcoin companies do. While many Bitcoin-heavy firms once operated exclusively as miners or treasury entities, the landscape has changed dramatically.
AI and Bitcoin Mining Convergence
Cole highlighted that leading miners such as:
- MARA Holdings
- Riot Platforms
- Hut 8
are now transitioning into AI compute providers, leveraging their massive data-center footprints to meet demand for high-intensity AI workloads.
He also noted a critical trend: the AI industry is increasingly constrained by energy availability, not semiconductor supply. Bitcoin miners—already experts in energy procurement, data-center cooling, and high-load operations—are uniquely positioned to support AI growth.
Meaning: MSCI’s rule would remove companies essential to the next era of computing from global benchmarks.
Large BTC Treasuries Will Remain Even as AI Revenue Expands
Strive also warned that even with new revenue streams such as AI services, many of these firms will continue holding large quantities of Bitcoin on their balance sheets.
In other words, their Bitcoin exposure isn’t a transitional quirk—it is a core strategic asset. MSCI’s 50% threshold therefore becomes a permanent penalty, effectively locking out companies positioned at the crossroads of:
- digital assets
- AI infrastructure
- high-energy compute systems
- financial innovation
This is one of the primary reasons Strive urges MSCI to scrap proposal excluding major BTC holders—the rule is incompatible with how modern digital-finance ecosystems operate.
Treasury Companies Provide BTC Access Similar to Financial Institutions
Cole also highlighted that companies like Strategy or Metaplanet are increasingly functioning as:
- Bitcoin-linked financial service providers
- equity-based BTC exposure platforms
- structured-note alternatives
- treasury-backed BTC access vehicles
These roles offer passive investors a way to gain exposure to Bitcoin without directly holding the asset, similar to products offered by major financial institutions.
Thus, removing treasury-model companies from MSCI indexes effectively gives traditional banks like:
- JPMorgan
- Goldman Sachs
- Morgan Stanley
a structural advantage, because their competing Bitcoin-linked instruments would still be included.
Strive argues this creates a biased financial environment, further emphasizing why Strive urges MSCI to scrap proposal excluding major BTC holders.
MSCI’s 50% Rule Would Cause Index “Whiplash”
Another key issue Strive raised is the extreme volatility of Bitcoin itself. If a company crosses above or below the 50% threshold simply because BTC’s price moved 10–20% in a short period, MSCI’s index composition would constantly shift.
This would:
- increase tracking errors
- force funds to rebalance more frequently
- expose investors to avoidable volatility
- weaken index consistency
Strive used Trump Media & Technology Group as a prime example. Despite having one of the largest public BTC treasuries, it barely avoided exclusion because its Bitcoin ratio happened to be under 50% at MSCI’s snapshot moment.
This unstable structure is one more reason Strive urges MSCI to scrap proposal excluding major BTC holders—the rule does not reflect real business fundamentals.
Strive’s Proposed Solution Parallel Ex-Digital Asset Treasury Indexes
Instead of MSCI’s single-track exclusion rule, Strive offers a compromise:
Create two index versions
- Standard MSCI Index (includes BTC-heavy firms)
- “Ex-digital asset treasury” Index (excludes BTC-heavy firms)
This gives asset managers full flexibility:
- those wanting to avoid crypto exposure can
- those wanting full market representation can
- index transparency is preserved
- investor choice is protected
This model mirrors existing index variations such as ESG-focused, sector-filtered, or ex-China indexes, making it simple for MSCI to implement without harming market efficiency.
Growing Industry Pressure as MSCI Reviews Its Final Decision
MSCI has not yet signaled whether it will modify the proposal. However, growing pressure from:
- treasury-driven Bitcoin firms
- mining-to-AI convergence companies
- Nasdaq-listed digital-asset innovators
- institutional asset managers
- traditional analysts like JPMorgan
suggests that MSCI will face significant scrutiny if it proceeds.
As more companies blend Bitcoin, energy infrastructure, AI compute, and treasury-based financial engineering, MSCI must determine whether it intends to represent the full evolving market—or exclude some of the most rapidly expanding sectors of modern finance.
Conclusion Why Strive Urges MSCI to Scrap Proposal Excluding Major BTC Holders
In summary, Strive urges MSCI to scrap proposal excluding major BTC holders because the rule would:
- distort market representation
- harm passive investors
- create artificial advantages for large banks
- misread the role of Bitcoin treasury companies
- ignore the mining–AI infrastructure convergence
- introduce index volatility and tracking risk
- freeze out next-generation tech-financial hybrids
As the digital-asset economy expands, the battle over index inclusion will shape not only Bitcoin companies but the future landscape of global investing.
Whether MSCI revises its approach—or pushes forward against industry pressure—will define how financial markets recognize Bitcoin-centric firms for years to come.
