MSCI’s own consultation document proposes a two-step eligibility screen for “non-operating companies” that could affect bitcoin treasury firms held in its global stock indexes Companies that
MSCI, whose stock indexes are tracked by trillions of dollars in passive investment funds worldwide, published a consultation document outlining a proposed methodology change that could affect how the index provider treats so-called “non-operating companies,” a category that includes publicly traded firms built primarily around holding a large treasury of bitcoin or another digital asset rather than running a traditional operating business.
The proposed methodology works in two steps. First, a company is run through what MSCI calls a core screen, which checks whether its operating assets, the assets actually used in running its primary business, exceed 50 percent of its total assets. A company that holds a sufficiently large non-operating asset position, such as a large bitcoin treasury, relative to its actual operating business could fail this initial screen. Companies that fail the core screen then face a secondary check against five separate financial ratios, with the specific combination of results across the core screen and those ratios determining final eligibility.
MSCI’s own document builds in a degree of stability for the index’s current membership. A company that already sits in one of MSCI’s indexes is not deleted automatically after a single failing period, but only after failing the relevant screens across two consecutive annual filing periods, giving existing constituents a longer runway to either adjust their balance sheets or simply continue qualifying under the new methodology before facing removal. A company not yet included in the index, by contrast, becomes ineligible for addition if it fails the screen in either of its most recent two annual filing periods, a somewhat stricter bar for new entrants than for incumbents.
Notably, MSCI’s own document does not use terms like bitcoin treasury or digital asset treasury anywhere in its methodology language, instead applying the generic non-operating companies framing uniformly to any company whose balance sheet is dominated by assets unrelated to its core operations, whatever those assets happen to be. An illustrative impact table within MSCI’s materials does reference specific bitcoin treasury-adjacent names as examples of companies the methodology could affect, without singling them out as the rule’s intended target.
MSCI’s investor relations calendar separately confirms that its next scheduled Index Review announcement date is November 11, 2026, with any resulting index changes taking effect December 1, 2026, the date by which any companies actually affected by the new non-operating companies screen would see their final index status confirmed. The consultation document, published on MSCI’s own website, states that its feedback period on the proposal closed September 30, 2026, with MSCI saying it expected to announce results on or before October 16, 2026, though the document itself does not state what, if anything, was ultimately decided following that feedback window.
This post first appeared in Inside MSCI’s New Rules That Could Push Bitcoin Treasury Companies Out of Its Indexes
