NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 14:11 EST — Regular session
- Bitcoin held around $91,000 after dipping below $90,000 earlier.
- Strategy shares rose as MSCI backed away from a near-term index exclusion plan for crypto treasury firms.
- Traders watched ETF flows and Friday’s U.S. jobs report for the next nudge.
Bitcoin steadied on Thursday after an early dip, while shares of Strategy (MSTR) rose with other crypto-linked stocks as investors digested MSCI’s latest move on index eligibility. Bitcoin was up about 0.4% at $91,152, after touching $89,312 earlier in the session, while Strategy gained about 4.7% and Coinbase added about 0.6%. Marathon Digital rose about 3.8%, while Riot Platforms slipped about 0.5%.
The moves matter because stocks like Strategy have become a stand-in for direct bitcoin exposure for investors who would rather trade equities than tokens. When bitcoin swings, these shares often move harder, and index decisions can amplify it.
MSCI’s stance is also a plumbing issue. If a stock stays inside widely tracked benchmarks, passive funds tend to keep owning it; if it’s pushed out, selling can become mechanical and fast.
MSCI said it will not implement its proposal to exclude “digital asset treasury companies” from its global investable market indexes as part of its February 2026 index review, but it plans a broader consultation on how to treat non-operating companies. It said it will keep the current treatment for firms on its preliminary list — those whose digital asset holdings are 50% or more of total assets — while freezing key inputs that drive index weight, including the number of shares used in index calculations. 1
Analysts said the decision removes a near-term overhang but leaves the bigger question hanging. “It removes a material near-term technical risk,” Owen Lau, an analyst at Clear Street, said, while JonesTrading chief market strategist Mike O’Rourke wrote he suspected “exclusion is postponed until later in the year.” 2
Flows into U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have turned choppy again. Data from Farside Investors showed net outflows of about $486 million on Wednesday, led by roughly $248 million from Fidelity’s FBTC and about $130 million from BlackRock’s IBIT. 3
Macro risk sat in the background. The dollar held steady on Thursday as markets weighed mixed U.S. data ahead of Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report, with investors still leaning toward at least two Federal Reserve rate cuts this year despite the central bank’s more cautious signal in December. 4
But the trade can turn quickly. A stronger-than-expected jobs print could push rate expectations back up and hit risk assets, while another run of ETF outflows would test the bid under bitcoin — and the high-beta stocks tied to it.
Next up is Friday’s U.S. jobs report, with traders also watching whether bitcoin can hold the $90,000 area and whether MSCI’s broader consultation produces tighter rules ahead of the February index review. 5
