Strategy's $55 Billion Bitcoin Bet Undeterred by Index Delisting Concerns, Says Michael Saylor

In brief

• Michael Saylor addressed the prospect of Strategy’s removal from stock indices.
• He said the company isn’t something that purely resembles an investment fund.
• JPMorgan highlighted MSCI’s consultation of crypto-buying firms in a report.

Decrypt’s Art, Fashion, and Entertainment Hub.

Discover SCENE

Strategy co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor downplayed concerns on Friday that the company could be excluded from certain equity indices next year, highlighting aspects of the firm’s business model, as its shares wavered close to a 13-month low.

On X, Saylor contrasted Strategy’s business model against investment funds, following a report from JPMorgan that highlighted how crypto-buying firms with similar qualities could be removed in February from index provider MSCI’s products, which guide activity among investment professionals.

“Strategy is not a fund, not a trust, and not a holding company,” Saylor said. “We’re a publicly traded operating company with a $500 million software business and a unique treasury strategy that uses Bitcoin as productive capital.”

Over the past month, Strategy’s shares have plunged 42% to $175, while outpacing Bitcoin’s decline from record highs, according to Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, Strategy’s market cap has slipped below the value of its Bitcoin holdings, complicating its ability to raise funding.

On Oct. 10, MSCI said that it was debating its treatment of crypto treasury firms, “including cases where capital-raising activities are primarily used to fund digital asset accumulation,” and companies “whose digital asset holdings represent 50% or more of their total assets.”

Historically, Strategy has issued common shares to add to its Bitcoin stockpile, but as that move has grown less lucrative, Strategy has embraced preferred shares offering dividend payments. MSCI is set to announce a decision on Jan 15.

On X, Saylor highlighted the products that Strategy has introduced this year, and how that reflects how the company is building “a Bitcoin-backed structured finance company with the ability to innovate in both capital markets and software.”

What’s more, Saylor said the company’s commitment to Bitcoin is unwavering, and “index classification doesn’t define” the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.

On Friday, Strategy’s stockpile was worth $55 billion. At its peak, Strategy’s Bitcoin was worth nearly $80 billion on Oct. 7, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.

Strategy was added to the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 late last year. Around that time, Bloomberg ETF Analyst James Seyffart estimated that the milestone would result in $2.1 billion worth of net buying for Strategy’s shares.

In September, Strategy had qualified for inclusion in the S&P 500, but the Bitcoin buying firm was passed over. Robinhood joined Coinbase, which was added in May.

In a Myriad prediction market, just 6% of respondents believe that Strategy will sell Bitcoin this year. Myriad is a unit of Dastan, the parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.