MSCI's 'Invisible Committee' Folder Hides the Plot, Bitcoin Think Tank Says 📁

The Bitcoin Policy Institute has published a research paper titled "Wall Street's Invisible Committee," questioning how MSCI developed its August proposal to tighten the rules governing its market indexes after the benchmark provider flagged Strategy, Metaplanet, and Yellow Cake for potential exclusion as "non-operating businesses." BPI pointed to metadata showing that the source presentation behind MSCI's consultation was stored in an internal folder designated for digital asset treasury companies, a finding the institute said "warrants asking whether its broader language carried forward" MSCI's earlier effort to remove such firms from its indexes. MSCI first proposed excluding digital asset treasury companies from its global indexes in 2025, but shelved the plan in January after pushback and said it would instead review "non-operating companies" more broadly. On Aug. 3, it returned with a wider proposal that could still remove Strategy, Metaplanet, and uranium investment company Yellow Cake. Under the methodology, MSCI would first assess whether a company has substantial operating assets before applying five additional financial tests, and the provider's own simulation showed all three firms would be removed. MSCI accepted feedback through Sept. 30 and said it expects to announce the outcome of the consultation at a later date.

Removing crypto treasury firms like Strategy or Metaplanet from MSCI indexes could force funds that track those benchmarks to sell their shares. In 2025, JPMorgan analysts estimated Strategy could face about $2.8 billion in outflows if it were excluded. Cointelegraph reached out to MSCI for comment but had not received a response before publication. After shelving its crypto-specific proposal in January, MSCI kept interim restrictions on affected digital asset treasury companies, including limits on new additions to its indexes, while it developed the broader review.

MSCI has said the new test is intended to identify companies whose value comes mainly from accumulating assets rather than from revenue-generating operations. In its paper, BPI also questioned MSCI's reliance on "operating assets," noting that the term is not a standardized balance-sheet category under US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or International Financial Reporting Standards. According to BPI, this could give MSCI significant discretion in how it classifies assets such as cash, investments, construction projects, and strategic holdings. The institute said the issue could extend beyond crypto, arguing that capital-intensive businesses such as mines or satellite networks may hold large amounts of assets and rely on outside financing for years before generating revenue, and called on MSCI to publish clearer and reproducible criteria for determining which companies qualify for its broad-market indexes. Strategy, which trades under the ticker $MSTR, most recently bought 1,665 Bitcoin for $143 million, bringing its $BTC stack to 847,666.