MSCI cap on new MicroStrategy shares tied to major Bitcoin drop, critics say

Beincrypto reported MSCI's October 2025 index proposal on crypto-heavy firms was followed by an $18,000 drop in Bitcoin, an approximately $900 billion market loss and a 31% quarterly decline. MSCI will no longer include newly issued shares from companies such as MicroStrategy (MSTR) in its indexes, removing a source of automatic, dilution-driven passive buying that previously created steady demand for new stock.

Morgan Stanley's January 2026 ETF filings were quickly followed by MSCI's policy reversal, and some commentators have alleged the sequence amounted to coordinated price suppression to enable institutional accumulation. Others dispute the move's impact: Max Keiser called the cap limited because forced buying can still occur if MSTR's stock rises with Bitcoin, while analyst Zynx said MicroStrategy is still expected to outperform the S&P 500 this year.

Adam Livingston highlighted that MSTR recently gained $3.7 billion in premium and has used SCALE and mNAV mechanics to raise capital and increase Bitcoin per share. Observers say the cap removes an important automatic buying mechanism but does not wholly constrain the market, and long-term institutional and corporate Bitcoin adoption is expected to continue.

Key Topics

Crypto, Msci, Microstrategy, Bitcoin, Morgan Stanley, Max Keiser