MSCI announced a noteworthy decision in early January: the proposal to exclude digital asset treasury companies (DATCOs) from the index review in February has been temporarily deferred.

What does this mean? Simply put, the existing rules remain unchanged—public companies already included in the MSCI index system with a digital asset proportion of 50% or more (such as MicroStrategy) will continue to stay in the index. However, this is not without restrictions. MSCI also confirmed that there will be no immediate increase in the shareholding ratio of these companies, no expansion of inclusion factors, and plans to add new DATCOs or adjust size segments have been postponed.

In other words, MSCI has adopted a "freeze" stance—neither hastily excluding nor rushing to expand.

The logic behind this is worth pondering. MSCI has initiated a broader market consultation, focusing on the core question: how to distinguish whether a company's holdings of digital assets are driven by core business operations or purely for investment purposes? This may seem like a technical issue, but it actually touches on a deeper question of how traditional financial index systems accommodate crypto asset holders. Different market participants have varying views on the classification standards for DATCOs, making subsequent discussions quite interesting.