- Strategy pleads against MSCI’s exclusion proposal
- MSCIâs new rule is discriminating: Strategy
On Wednesday, December 10, the crypto community was stunned with an unwelcoming proposal from the MSCI looking to remove Digital Asset Treasury companies, including Strategy, from its market indexes.
Michael Saylor, the founder and chairman of the world’s largest Bitcoin treasury company, Strategy, has confirmed the receipt of this proposal, revealing that the firm had issued a formal response to the agency, expressing its disagreement on the exclusion plan.
Strategy pleads against MSCI’s exclusion proposal
According to Saylor, the firm had returned an official letter to MSCI, requesting that it revoke its new proposal to exclude digital asset treasury companies from its Global Investable Market Indexes.
Strategy asserted that the move would be unfair, misguided, and damaging to innovation at a critical moment for the broad cryptocurrency industry.
According to the new rule proposed by MSCI, it is planning to cease engagements from companies with digital asset holdings that make up to 50% or more of their total assets.
While this typically describes Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), as its Bitcoin holdings represent nearly all of its total assets, the renowned Bitcoin treasury firm is at the verge of being excluded from the MSCI’s Global Investable Market Indexes.
In its assertions, Strategy explained that digital asset treasuries are real operating businesses, not passive investment funds, and should be treated the same as companies holding cash, commodities, or other concentrated balance-sheet assets.
MSCI’s new rule is discriminating: Strategy
While Strategy had demanded the broad crypto community to join hands on its appeal against the move, it had described the MSCI’s new proposed rule as “arbitrary and discriminatory,” noting that no similar asset-specific limit exists elsewhere in MSCI’s standards.
Moreover, Strategy further warned that implementing the new rule could inject policy-driven judgments into index construction, something index providers have historically avoided to maintain neutrality and global credibility.
Also, Strategy further stresses that removing DATs from global indexes would conflict with the aim of the U.S. policies that position cryptocurrencies as the major infrastructures for future economic growth, pointing out that Bitcoin and other digital assets are already forming the foundation of a new financial system, and that American companies are in the best position to lead this growth.
While Strategy is now pleading with MSCI to drop the proposal, it warned that blocking DATs from major indexes would only halt major innovations, which would negatively affect both investors and the broader market.