NEW YORK, January 7, 2026, 17:49 (EST) — After-hours
- Bitcoin fell about 2% as traders reassessed the early-year bounce.
- Strategy rose after MSCI dropped plans to exclude crypto-treasury firms from its indexes.
- Investors watch Friday’s U.S. jobs report and daily spot bitcoin ETF flow data.
Bitcoin fell on Wednesday and stayed soft after the U.S. close, while shares of Strategy held firmer after MSCI backed away from an index change. Bitcoin was last down 2.3% at $91,031 after touching a session low of $90,629; Strategy was up 2.5% at $161.83.
MSCI on Tuesday dropped a proposal to exclude “digital asset treasury companies,” or DATCOs, from its indexes and said it would open a broader consultation on how to classify non-operating firms. MSCI defines DATCOs as companies whose digital-asset holdings represent 50% or more of total assets; Strategy said on X it expected those firms to remain in MSCI indexes through the February 2026 review. 1
That matters because big pools of money track MSCI benchmarks, and index removals can turn into forced selling for passive funds that mirror those baskets. Investors also have one eye on Friday’s U.S. employment report, a key macro release that can shift rate bets and risk appetite in a hurry. 2
Owen Lau, an analyst at Clear Street, said MSCI’s pause “removes a material near-term technical risk” for equities that investors use as stand-ins for bitcoin exposure. Mike O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading, said he suspected exclusion was “postponed until later in the year.” 3
Coinbase fell 1.8% to $245.93 in after-hours trade. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF slipped 1.7%, while miners were mixed: Marathon Digital dropped 2.2% and Riot Platforms gained 1.9%.
Flows into U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds — vehicles that hold the token and trade like a stock — swung to a $243 million net outflow on Tuesday after more than $1.16 billion of inflows over the first two sessions of 2026, Bitbo News reported, citing SoSoValue data. Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, called the move “post-inflow normalization,” and Nick Ruck at LVRG Research framed it as routine profit-taking and rebalancing. 4
Coinbase had caught a bid earlier in the week after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy” and raised its 12-month price target to $303, Yahoo Finance reported. The shares have still traded like a high-beta read on crypto volumes and sentiment. 5
But the setup cuts both ways: a hot payrolls print can lift yields and squeeze leveraged bets, and another round of ETF outflows would test the idea that institutional demand is firming. Swissquote Bank’s Ipek Ozkardeskaya has warned cryptocurrencies remain high-risk, and their “strong correlation with tech shares” can keep volatility elevated. 6
Next up is the U.S. employment report for December, due at 8:30 a.m. EST on Friday. Traders will watch whether it moves rate expectations — and whether bitcoin can hold the $90,000 area that came back into view on Wednesday’s dip. 7
