MSCI Defers Crypto Firm Index Decision to 2026, Easing Sell-Off Fears

The announcement from MSCI confirms that no changes to the index treatment of so-called digital asset treasury companies (DATCOs) will be implemented in its upcoming February 2026 Index Review. This category includes firms whose balance sheets are heavily weighted toward holdings such as Bitcoin. The decision follows an initial consultation that “confirmed institutional investor concern that some DATCOs exhibit characteristics similar to investment funds, which are not eligible for inclusion” in MSCI’s global equity benchmarks. By deferring a final ruling, MSCI has effectively preserved the index eligibility for existing DATCOs, provided they continue to meet all other standard inclusion requirements.

The immediate market reaction was positive for the most prominent player in the space. Shares of Strategy, which pioneered the corporate Bitcoin treasury model, climbed roughly 6.9% to $168.7 in after-hours trading following the news. The company itself called MSCI’s decision “a strong outcome for neutral indexing and economic reality.” This rally reflects investor relief that a significant near-term overhang—the risk of forced selling if these companies were suddenly deemed ineligible for major indices—has been temporarily lifted.

At the heart of MSCI’s review is a fundamental classification question: do DATCOs still meet the definition of operating businesses for index purposes, or does their substantial asset exposure make them more closely resemble investment vehicles? MSCI’s statement noted that “DATCOs may represent a subset of a wider group of entities whose business activities are predominantly investment-oriented rather than operational.” This distinction is critical because pure investment funds and vehicles are typically excluded from MSCI’s standard equity indices, which are designed to track the performance of operating companies.

The consultation highlighted specific investor worries around balance sheet volatility and index construction. When a company’s market value becomes tightly correlated with the price of a volatile asset like Bitcoin, rather than its core operational performance, it challenges traditional index methodology. The concern is that including such firms could inadvertently transform a broad market index into a proxy for crypto asset performance, potentially misrepresenting the health of the industrial or technology sectors they nominally belong to.

The DATCO model emerged from a surge in 2023, where public companies, led by Strategy, began raising equity and debt to accumulate digital assets like Bitcoin as balance-sheet reserves. This strategy positioned corporate treasuries as a novel vehicle for institutional crypto exposure, broadening significantly from its origins. As the trend expanded, these digital asset treasury companies attracted intense investor interest, with some trading at substantial premiums linked more to their token holdings than to their underlying business operations.

However, the cycle has since shifted. Later in the year, those premiums narrowed as cryptocurrency market volatility intensified and broader sustainability concerns set in. The initial phase of rapid adoption has given way to a period of reassessment, leaving regulators, index providers like MSCI, and investors to debate a central question: do crypto treasury firms represent a lasting, innovative corporate model, or are they merely a market-specific phase? MSCI’s decision to defer its final judgment until 2026 leaves this question explicitly open, acknowledging the model is still under scrutiny and its long-term viability unproven within the framework of global equity benchmarks.