Nasdaq-listed Strive, the 14th-largest publicly traded Bitcoin treasury firm, has called on MSCI to rethink its proposal to exclude major Bitcoin-holding companies from its indexes.
In a letter to MSCI chairman and CEO Henry Fernandez, Strive argued that removing companies whose digital asset holdings exceed 50% of total assets would limit passive investors’ access to high-growth sectors — while also failing to accurately target the firms MSCI aims to address.
Losing inclusion in MSCI benchmarks could deal a heavy blow to digital asset treasury companies. JPMorgan analysts previously warned that Strategy, a Bitcoin treasury firm featured in the MSCI World Index, could face as much as $2.8 billion in losses if the proposal advances.
Strategy chair Michael Saylor has since confirmed that the company is in active discussions with MSCI over the matter.
Large Bitcoin holders are at the forefront of AI, says Strive CEO
Strive CEO Matt Cole argued that major Bitcoin miners — including MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, and Hut 8, all of which could be affected by the proposed exclusions — are quickly expanding their data centers to supply power and infrastructure for AI computing workloads.
“Many analysts contend that the bottleneck in the AI race is no longer semiconductors but access to power — and Bitcoin miners are uniquely positioned to meet that growing demand,” he said.
“But even as AI revenue increases, their Bitcoin holdings will remain. Your proposed exclusion would remain as well, limiting client exposure to one of the fastest-growing segments of the global economy.”
Bitcoin structured finance is expanding
Cole also argued that the exclusion would block companies like Strategy and Metaplanet, which provide investors with products comparable to Bitcoin-linked structured notes offered by JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.
“Bitcoin structured finance is as legitimate a business for us as it is for JPMorgan,” he said. “In fact, we — like many Bitcoin-focused firms — have been transparent about making this our core vertical. It would be fundamentally asymmetric to force us to compete with traditional financial institutions while bearing a higher cost of capital due to passive index penalties on the very Bitcoin that underpins our products.”
A 50% Bitcoin threshold is ‘unworkable’
Cole added that MSCI’s proposed threshold is impractical, as tying index inclusion to such a volatile asset would cause companies to “flicker” in and out of benchmarks, driving up management costs and increasing tracking error for funds.
He further noted that determining when a firm’s digital asset exposure surpasses 50% is itself challenging, given the range of instruments through which companies now hold or gain access to digital assets.
“The issue is not hypothetical. Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which holds the tenth-largest public Bitcoin treasury, did not appear on your preliminary exclusion list simply because its spot Bitcoin holdings came in just under the 50% threshold,” Cole said.
“But Trump Media is absent only because it is the first major treasury firm to pursue significant digital asset exposure through derivatives and ETFs.”
Rather than imposing a broad exclusion, Strive has urged MSCI to create an “ex-digital asset treasury” variant of its existing indexes.
“Asset owners that prefer to avoid these companies could choose those benchmarks, while others could continue using the standard indexes that best reflect the full investable equity universe,” Cole added.
