Bitcoin "never sell" companies start selling, and MSCI's countdown is ticking

Strategy sells bitcoin to meet shareholder obligations in the first two weeks of August

Strategy sells bitcoin to meet shareholder obligations in the first two weeks of August for the first time since it began purchasing bitcoin in 2020. The company sold 1,690 bitcoins for $108.6 million, with an average price of $64,262 each, and used the proceeds to repurchase 1.15 million STRC preferred shares. This is the fourth consecutive week Strategy has become a net seller.

The sale reduced Strategy's Bitcoin holdings to 840,447, which were purchased over the years at a total cost of US$63.36 billion, with an average price of US$75,385 each. Based on current prices, the unrealized loss on this position is approximately $8.7 billion. The company also raised $653 million by issuing new shares, and used most of that money to increase its cash reserves, which reached $4.65 billion as of August 9.

Strategy is not the only Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana treasury company to make unusual operations within two weeks of the same period.

Six companies, six different problems

In August 2026, seven treasury companies faced seven different problems:

Strategy Company : Sell 1,690 bitcoins (US$108.6 million) to repurchase STRC preferred shares. Currently holding 840,447 bitcoins, MSCI will remove it from the candidate list? Yes.

Riot Platforms: Sold 9,665 bitcoins (US$732.5 million) in the first half of the year to build AI data centers. Currently holding 11,380 bitcoins and are not on the MSCI candidate list.

Metaplanet: Denied the sale after transferring 5,014 bitcoins, calling it a regular escrow transfer and launching a new BitBonds debt plan. Currently holding 43,000 bitcoins, MSCI will remove it from the candidate list? Yes.

FG Nexus: Sell all of Ethereum's assets (approximately US$61 million), exit the cryptocurrency space, and shift to acquiring prefabricated houses. Ethereum currently has zero positions and is not on the MSCI candidate list.

DeFi Development Corp: Closing its treasury accelerator program, net loss on digital assets of US$27.3 million in the second quarter. Currently holding 2.31 million SOL shares and are not on the MSCI candidate list.

Bit Digital: Using 49,000 LsETH (74%) as loan collateral, it obtained a US$50 million loan from Galaxy Digital. Currently holds approximately 66,192 LsETH (converted) and is not on the MSCI candidate list.

GameSquare: Ethereum-backed debt strained free cash flow, with cash reserves of only $2.1 million and notes payable of $12.1 million. Currently holding 14,840 Ethereum units (US$23.3 million) and are not on the MSCI candidate list.

Riot Platforms: Selling Bitcoin to AI Computing

Riot Platforms sells Bitcoin with the goal of moving from mining to AI computing. In the first half of 2026, the company sold 9,665 bitcoins for US$732.5 million, 3,778 in the first quarter alone, and held 11,380 bitcoins as of the end of June, about half of which have been used as collateral. The company said the proceeds will be used to build the data center, including a 191-megawatt lease agreement that is expected to generate approximately $9.1 billion in rental income over 20 years.

Metaplanet: Denies sale, launches BitBonds plan

Metaplanet denied any sale on August 12. The company moved 5,014 bitcoins, valued at approximately $322 million at the time, between two owned escrow wallets, sparking online speculation that they had been sold. CEO Simon Gerovich publicly stated that he had not sold any bitcoins and the position remained at 43,000. That same week, Metaplane launched BitBonds, a fixed-rate debt program designed to raise cash without having to sell bitcoins or issue new shares. Regardless of the bitcoin price, the company must fulfill this new fixed debt.

FG Nexus: Completely withdraw from cryptocurrency

FG Nexus took a more radical move, withdrawing from the business entirely. The company sold all of Ethereum's assets before June 30, raising approximately $61 million. A detailed review of documents showed that total pledge income during the program's life was only approximately $144,000, a figure not separately listed in the company's own summary report. The company's Form 10-Q showed a loss related to the exit of Ethereum of $41.2 million, and a consolidated net loss for the first half of the year was $56.9 million. FG Nexus is now investing the proceeds in prefabricated housing, known as mobile home parks.

DeFi Development Corp: Closing Treasury Accelerator Project

DeFi Development Corp, a Solana treasury company, is shutting down its Treasury Accelerator project that it used to fund other Solana-related projects. The company posted a net loss of $27.3 million in the second quarter, mainly due to a loss of $21.5 million on digital assets, compared with a profit of $21.2 million in the same period last year. The company still holds 2.31 million SOLs and bought back some of the convertible bonds at a discount of approximately 35%.

Bit Digital: Use most of the pledged Ethereum as collateral

Bit Digital converted 73,235 Ethereums into 66,192 liquidity-pledged Ethereums during the quarter, and used 49,000 of them (valued at $105.6 million) as collateral to obtain loans from Galaxy Digital. This accounted for approximately 74% of post-conversion positions. The initial withdrawal amount of the loan was US$50 million and the interest rate was 5.45%. A review of loan terms found that companies had 24 hours to add collateral after receiving ordinary margin calls. Bit Digital retained the remaining 17,192 pieces (valued at $27.6 million) as a buffer and separately charged a non-cash impairment of $46 million on the position, which the company said was not a realized loss.

GameSquare: Gap between treasury size and available cash

GameSquare's own documents show that there is a gap between its nominal treasury size and available cash. As of June 30, the company held 14,840 Ethereum pieces worth approximately US$23.3 million, as well as US$12.1 million in Ethereum-backed promissory notes, with a coverage ratio of approximately 147%. Loan terms allow lenders to request additional collateral when the coverage ratio is below 130%. If it is below 120%, the pledged Ethereum can be confiscated after a 24-hour grace period. The company has only $2.1 million in cash on hand.

MSCI's process has never stopped since it was launched in January

On January 6, 2026, MSCI said it would not remove Bitcoin and Ethereum Treasury from its stock index, reversing a narrower proposal circulated months ago. But the matter is not settled. MSCI froze its indexing mechanism for treasury companies that it has included in the index and said it would conduct broader consultations on so-called non-operating companies, a category broad enough to include any company that holds assets rather than operating businesses.

Market value of the three MSCI candidates for elimination

The consultation will be launched on August 3, 2026. MSCI's document sets out a two-step test. First, a company needs at least half of its assets to be related to actual operations to pass the preliminary screening. Companies that fail will be subject to five financial ratios. If four of them fail to meet the standards, they may be eliminated unless the company is already a member of the index. In this case, the requirements are more lenient and it will take two consecutive years to fail to meet the standards. be eliminated.

After running the test, three companies were marked for possible removal from the MSCI Global Investable Markets Index: Strategy Company with a market cap of $23.9 billion, Uranium holding company Yellow Cake with a market cap of $1.8 billion, and Metaplane, with a market cap of $654 million (a figure different from its direct holdings of approximately $3 billion in Bitcoin). Three other companies-SharpLink, Center Laboratories and Lydia Holding-are on the watch list. Consultations will end at the end of September, and MSCI plans to announce results by October 16, with any changes taking effect during the index review in November.

Overlapses and differences in the two lists

Strategy and Metaplanet are the only two of the seven companies that MSCI actually proposes to eliminate. Riot, FG Nexus, DeFi Development, Bit Digital and GameSquare did not appear in the MSCI proposal. Yellow Cake has nothing to do with Bitcoin or Ethereum treasury; it holds physical uranium.

Neither Strategy nor Metaplanet linked recent operations to index risk. Strategy's filing attributed its sale to the payment of preferred stock dividends. Metaplanet's CEO attributed the wallet transfer to regular custody and had nothing to do with MSCI. MSCI's screening criteria focus on asset composition and cash flow, rather than why a company sells assets in a particular week. Two independent pressures go their own way, and of the seven companies in this story, only two have experienced the intersection.

The figures cited by various parties are controversial

JPMorgan has estimated the possible losses caused by MSCI's move. The bank estimates that excluding strategy companies alone could force funds tracking MSCI to make a passive sell-off of $1.8 billion to $2.8 billion, and if MSCI, FTSE Russell and the S & P Dow Jones Indices combined, the total could be as high as $8.8 billion. The estimate sparked calls for online boycotts of JPMorgan Chase, with some users accusing the bank of using its own research to pre-market trading. There is currently no evidence that JPMorgan had a financial interest in the results. The accusation involved timing and influence rather than overt conflicts of interest.

MSCI has backed down on such issues once before. The January reversal came after months of pressure, and the current proposal does not guarantee that the November review will have different results for Strategy or Metaplanet.

What will be decided in November

The next key point is October 16, when MSCI will announce the results of this consultation before the November index review. Strategy and Metaplanet are two companies in this story with specific risk dates. The other five companies are coping with their own financing pressures on their own schedules, with no index deadline forcing them to make any decisions.