From October 20 to 22, along the banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River, the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference returns once again, featuring Nobel laureates and Turing Award winners discussing the future and trends of technology, plus a conversation between viral professors McFarland and Xiang Biao who offer relief for the age of anxiety and involution.

Limited seats available, first come first served. Let us embark together on the journey of sustainability.

MSCI's new rules proposed in August this year stipulate that companies whose primary business is holding investment assets will no longer qualify for index inclusion. One of the world's largest stock index providers, MSCI, has finalized the new rules it proposed in August, potentially removing leading Bitcoin-holding public companies Strategy (MSTR) and Metaplanet (3350) from its global equity indexes.

According to the new rules announced by MSCI on Thursday, companies that primarily hold investment assets rather than engaging in substantive operating businesses will no longer be eligible for inclusion in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes. The final list of affected companies will be published on November 11, and the new rules will take effect after the close on November 30. This decision matters because it will affect market demand for the stocks of the relevant companies. Many investors participate in the stock market by investing in funds that track stock indexes. When a company is included in an index, these funds must buy its shares; when a company is removed, fund managers must sell its shares regardless of their personal views on the company.

Decentralized infrastructure network ZEROBASE stated on social platforms: "The MSCI event highlights the growing contradiction between traditional index compilation methods and emerging corporate models. These companies treat Bitcoin as a core treasury asset rather than a secondary investment holding." ZEROBASE pointed out: "Passive investment capital has become an important source of demand for these stocks. If this buying pressure continues to diminish, it could narrow the equity financing channels that some of these companies rely on to raise funds and continue purchasing Bitcoin."

Headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, Strategy faces the greatest risk. According to Bitcoin Treasuries data, Strategy is the public company holding the most Bitcoin globally, with 848,250 bitcoins worth approximately $69.67 billion. The company typically raises funds by selling preferred shares such as STRC and STRK to purchase Bitcoin. JPMorgan analysts estimate that if Strategy is removed from the relevant indexes, it could trigger approximately $2.8 billion in outflows from its stock. Strategy shares closed at $151.29 on Thursday, down about 72% from its historical high of $543 set in November 2024.

According to TradingView data, Tokyo-based Metaplanet closed at 277 yen (approximately $1.75) on Friday, compared to a high of 1,930 yen reached in June 2025. However, the potential selling pressure will directly affect these companies' stocks rather than Bitcoin itself. Index funds are selling company shares, which does not necessarily mean Strategy needs to sell its Bitcoin holdings. But if market demand for the relevant stocks weakens, these companies may find it harder to raise funds through financing to continue buying more Bitcoin. And sustained Bitcoin accumulation has long been a core strategy for these companies.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor previously emphasized that the company is an operating business with a software division, and the Bitcoin treasury is a separate business unit. He opposed comparing Strategy to an investment fund. Formerly known as MicroStrategy, Strategy mainly sells business intelligence software to companies such as Coca-Cola and Porsche.

How MSCI will determine which companies to remove

MSCI already excludes investment funds and similar investment vehicles from its equity indexes. The new rules extend this exclusion criterion to companies whose business models resemble investment funds. First, MSCI will assess whether a company has substantial operating assets, meaning assets related to actual operating businesses. If a company fails the first test, it must undergo a second round of review. The second round of testing includes five financial indicators covering expenses, cash flow, changes in asset value, and reliance on external financing. If a company triggers at least four of the five non-qualifying criteria, it will lose index eligibility.

To avoid frequent adjustments to index constituents, MSCI has also introduced a buffer mechanism. For existing index constituents, removal will only occur if they fail the screening in both of the most recent two annual financial reporting periods. For companies not yet included in the index, they cannot be added if they fail the screening in any one of the most recent two annual financial reporting periods. MSCI conducted an initial trial run using data from May 2026 and found that three companies might need to be removed from the MSCI ACWI Investable Market Index. These three companies are Strategy, Metaplanet, and British uranium investment company Yellow Cake.

In addition, MSCI will terminate the temporary measures it introduced in October 2025 for companies whose digital assets account for 50% or more of total assets. These temporary measures include freezing the share count growth used in index calculations for the relevant companies and suspending their inclusion in the index or adjustments to their market capitalization size classification. Starting from the November index review, these companies will no longer be subject to the aforementioned temporary measures and will instead be uniformly evaluated under the new rules.