[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] Strategy has voiced opposition to MSCI’s proposed overhaul of inclusion rules for its global stock indexes.

Bitcoin Magazine reported on Aug. 31 local time that Strategy sent a formal letter protesting MSCI’s review of an option that could exclude it from the Global Investable Market Index.

The dispute centres on MSCI’s proposal earlier this month to add a definition for “non-operating companies.” MSCI is reviewing a plan to exclude companies classified as non-operating from eligibility for the Global Investable Market Index. If adopted, companies holding large amounts of bitcoin, like Strategy, could be dropped from major indexes used by institutional investors as benchmarks.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor (마이클 세일러) and Chief Executive Phong Le (퐁 레) sharply criticised MSCI’s approach in the letter. They said MSCI’s continued attempts to discriminate against digital assets are wrong and raised questions about its neutrality and credibility as an index provider. They also argued the proposal is discriminatory, arbitrary and wrong, like a previous proposal that was withdrawn in 2025.

In 2025, MSCI proposed excluding companies from indexes if their digital-asset holdings were more than 50 percent of total assets, before withdrawing the plan. Strategy views the latest proposal as a second attempt in essentially the same direction. The company said that even if the proposal is adopted, the practical impact on its business would not be significant, but it would cause major damage to MSCI’s reputation and should be withdrawn.

A core issue is how bitcoin should be treated as an asset. Strategy said MSCI is relying on an unprecedented classification standard to define bitcoin as a “non-operating” asset. It said it reports its bitcoin business as an operating segment and treats bitcoin valuation gains and losses as operating costs.

Strategy also said MSCI’s methodology targeting non-operating companies is arbitrary and lacks explanation. It said the standard could function as a tool to target companies with bitcoin treasury strategies without a justified basis. It also said it employs 1,500 people worldwide and creates shareholder value using bitcoin, stressing that it is clearly an operating company.

The market is paying attention to the possibility that the dispute could be linked to channels for institutional inflows, beyond a simple classification issue. MSCI indexes are among the key benchmarks used by large institutional investors. As a result, whether a company is excluded could directly affect market exposure and investment access for companies holding bitcoin in their treasuries.

Strategy is an enterprise software company originally known as MicroStrategy. It shifted its focus in 2020 to a strategy of buying and holding bitcoin and now holds the most bitcoin among companies. It holds 845,050 bitcoin, worth about $65.8 billion at the price cited in the article. Investors have used the company as a way to gain amplified exposure to bitcoin price moves through its Nasdaq-listed stock, MSTR.

The share price also reacted immediately. MSTR ended Aug. 31 trading up 4 percent. It is down 15 percent for the year to date.

The issue is also feeding a debate over how to classify companies that place bitcoin on their balance sheets within existing equity index frameworks. Depending on which standards MSCI ultimately adopts, the index-inclusion environment could change not only for Strategy but also for companies that use digital assets as a core treasury strategy.