The MSCI Index is consulting on whether to exclude Bitcoin and other digital asset treasury companies that have a balance sheet with more than 50% of their assets in crypto.
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Strategy CEO Phong Le argues that stock market index MSCI’s proposal to exclude companies holding more than 50% of their assets in crypto would be like removing energy giants, such as Chevron, from an index simply for holding oil.
The MSCI Index in October that it was consulting with the investment community about whether to exclude Bitcoin () and other (DATs) that have the majority of their balance sheet in crypto.
During an interview with the Schwab Network on Wednesday, a streaming and market-analysis channel, Le that he has “a lot of respect for the indexes,” but said the MSCI’s stance is “misinformed and misguided.”
He also said that oil giant Chevron has more than half of its assets in oil, timberland company Weyerhaeuser has a significant portion of its assets in wood, and Simon Property Group owns a substantial part of its assets in real estate, and none of them are facing exclusion.
Phong Le joined to discuss the $60T digital credit opportunity and response to MSCI. Restricting passive index investment in bitcoin today would be like restricting investment in oil and oil rigs in the 1900s, spectrum and cell towers in the 1980s, or compute and…
— Strategy (@Strategy)
“It seems very early to pick winners and choosers and stifle innovation in a category like this,” Le said.
“This would be like in the 1980s, saying the telecom company shouldn’t have built out cell towers and spectrum, or three years ago, saying AI companies shouldn’t be investing in LL labs and high-performance compute.”
MSCI’s stance is a mischaracterization: Strategy CEO
Le said that other parts of the MSCI proposal, such as and other digital asset companies as funds rather than operating companies, is also a mistake.
Some of the feedback to the proposal so far has been that DATs can “exhibit characteristics similar to investment funds, which are currently not eligible for index inclusion,” according to the MSCI.
“I’ve been CFO since 2015, Michael Saylor founded the company in 1989, we’ve been public since 1998, I work here day to day, and we are 100% an operating company legally from a corporate structure,” Le said.
Strategy letter says MSCI proposal isn’t neutral
Le’s comments come on the same day as Strategy released its letter to MSCI, that it would bias the MSCI against crypto as an asset class, rather than the index company acting as a neutral arbiter.
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The MSCI consultation is open until Dec. 31, with the conclusion to be made public on Jan. 15 next year, and any resulting changes coming into force during February.
Charlie Sherry, the head of finance at Australian crypto exchange BTC Markets, that the MSCI only puts changes like this into consultation when they’re already leaning toward implementation.
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