Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) is considering a rule change that could force crypto treasury companies to sell up to $15 billion in cryptocurrency assets. The proposal, announced for consultation in October, would exclude from its indexes companies that hold the majority of their balance sheet in crypto. MSCI indexes are critical benchmarks for passive investment funds, making inclusion vital for a company's access to capital.
According to BitcoinForCorporations, a group campaigning against the proposal, a "verified preliminary list" of 39 companies with $113 billion in total float-adjusted market capitalization could be affected. The group projects outflows between $10 and $15 billion. Analysts have calculated potential outflows could total $11.6 billion across all impacted companies. Such a massive sell-off would exert significant downward pressure on crypto markets, which have already been trending lower for nearly three months.
MicroStrategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, is at the epicenter of this debate. The company holds 671,268 BTC, valued at roughly $60 billion. JPMorgan's analysis estimates that MicroStrategy alone could see $2.8 billion in outflows if removed from MSCI indexes. BitcoinForCorporations notes that MicroStrategy represents 74.5% of the total impacted float-adjusted market cap.
The campaign group argues that using a single balance sheet metric is unfair. "A single balance sheet metric cannot reflect whether a company is an operating business. The rule would remove companies even when their customers, revenue, operations, and business model remain unchanged," they stated. They have urged MSCI to "withdraw the proposal and continue to classify companies based on their actual business model, financial performance, and operational characteristics." A petition letter from BitcoinForCorporations had garnered 1,268 signatures at the time of reporting.
Industry pushback is growing. On December 5, Nasdaq-listed Strive urged MSCI to "let the market decide." MicroStrategy itself stated in a letter that the proposed policy change would bias MSCI against crypto as an asset class, rather than the index provider acting as a neutral arbiter. The timing coincides with a post by MicroStrategy's Executive Chairman Michael Saylor on X, showing him and CEO Phong Le in front of what appeared to be a Morgan Stanley office, hinting at ongoing discussions with U.S. banks.
MSCI's final conclusions are scheduled to be announced by January 15, 2026, with any proposed implementation included in the February 2026 Index Review. The outcome will have major implications for corporate Bitcoin adoption and market liquidity.
