Michael Saylor Criticizes MSCI as Strategy Defends Bitcoin Treasury Model and Predicts a New Bull Market

Strategy Chairman Michael Saylor said he was disappointed with MSCI as the index provider considers removing the Bitcoin-focused company from its equity indexes. The decision, discussed in a Bloomberg interview, was expected by Friday and centers on whether Strategy should be treated as an operating company or as an investment vehicle because of its large cryptocurrency holdings.

The issue matters because index removal can reduce visibility among institutional investors and trigger selling by funds that track MSCI benchmarks. Saylor argued that Strategy remains a publicly traded operating company with a software business and a treasury strategy built around Bitcoin. That defense echoes comments reported by Investing.com and carried by Yahoo Finance Canada, while Bloomberg framed the dispute as part of a broader debate over how equity indexes classify companies whose balance sheets are dominated by digital assets.

Strategy’s model combines enterprise software, equity issuance, debt and Bitcoin purchases. The company’s recent buying shows that the approach remains active: Strategy acquired more than $21 million of Bitcoin during the prior week, funded mainly through the sale of more than 125,000 common shares and a small cash contribution, according to Fortune.

The company’s Bitcoin position stood at about 840,447 coins in an earlier update cited by Yahoo Finance, equal to roughly 4% of Bitcoin’s 21 million maximum supply. Fortune valued the holdings at about $70 billion and also reported that Strategy repurchased approximately $192 million of stock. Those transactions leave investors balancing two exposures at once: the value and volatility of Bitcoin, and the financing choices Strategy uses to expand its holdings.

Saylor said Bitcoin’s lengthy correction has ended and predicted that the cryptocurrency will return above $100,000. In the Bloomberg interview, he described Bitcoin as being at the beginning of a bull market, citing favorable regulation and growing bank adoption as supporting factors.

His longer-range forecast is even more aggressive. Saylor has said Bitcoin could appreciate about 30% annually for the next 20 years before settling into a roughly 20% annual growth rate. One calculation based on that view places Bitcoin near $21 million by 2045, while another Yahoo Finance analysis examined what the projection would mean for Strategy investors and a $10,000 investment. Ababnews reported Saylor’s separate estimate that future annual growth could reach 20% to 30%, although those forecasts remain investment views rather than established market outcomes.

Strategy’s Bitcoin exposure has produced a powerful equity story, but it has also magnified risk. Saylor described Bitcoin as having annualized volatility of about 40 and an annualized return of about 40% since 2020, according to Ababnews. A 30% annual return forecast would still represent a sharp slowdown from that historical figure, even as it would remain far above long-term returns typically associated with diversified public equities.

Market conditions have already tested the structure. Cryptoticker reported that Strategy’s Bitcoin premium had disappeared, its STRC preferred shares had fallen below par, and Bitcoin was testing $60,000, with $55,000 identified as a downside level. The company’s ability to issue shares or other securities at attractive prices therefore remains tied to both Bitcoin’s price and investor confidence in the treasury model.

MSCI’s classification decision could influence how passive funds and institutional portfolios handle Strategy shares. Removal would create selling pressure from funds tracking affected benchmarks, while continued inclusion would preserve access to a large pool of index-linked capital. The immediate effect would depend on the indexes involved, the size of passive ownership and how investors distinguish Strategy from a fund or trust.

Saylor’s argument is that Bitcoin functions as productive capital inside an operating company rather than as a passive investment portfolio. That distinction is central to the dispute. Strategy’s software operations, capital raising and corporate governance give it a conventional public-company structure, but its Bitcoin holdings dominate investor attention and financial exposure. The MSCI decision therefore reaches beyond one stock, raising a classification question for other companies that hold substantial digital assets.

Strategy offers investors a public-market route to Bitcoin exposure, but the route carries company-specific risks that direct ownership does not. Share issuance can expand the Bitcoin balance while diluting existing holders, debt and preferred securities add financing obligations, and a sustained Bitcoin decline can pressure both the asset value and the stock’s market premium.

Saylor’s bullish forecast and recent purchase reinforce Strategy’s commitment to accumulation. The MSCI controversy highlights the other side of the trade: institutional eligibility, index mechanics and capital-market access can shape returns alongside Bitcoin itself. The next milestones are MSCI’s classification decision, Strategy’s future financing activity and whether Bitcoin’s rebound can sustain the valuation premium that supports the company’s purchasing cycle.