S&P HANDS OUT THREE SEATS — STRATEGY’S 845,050 BTC STILL DON’T COUNT AS EARNINGS
The index can count the paper loss. It has no line for the coin.
S&P Dow Jones named three new members of the S&P 500 tonight: Bloom Energy, Illumina, and Everpure. They join September 21. Strategy is not on the list — and this time no committee passed it over. The rulebook did it automatically. To join the index, a company must show a profit under standard accounting rules, in its latest quarter and across its last four combined. Strategy’s software business made money last quarter: $122 million in revenue, $82 million in gross profit. It didn’t matter. The same accounting rules make the company re-price its Bitcoin every quarter and book the change as gain or loss. Bitcoin fell, so the books show an $8.3 billion paper loss for the quarter — $22.8 billion for the half. The test fails before anyone gets a vote. Here is what the test cannot see: 845,050 BTC, about $52 billion after the debt and preferred stock ahead of it. The index counts the paper loss. It has no line for the coin. The money on the other side of that door is not small. S&P 500 funds hold trillions, and every fund must buy every member. That bid does not exist for Strategy until Bitcoin’s price climbs back over the marks — or the rule changes. The Nasdaq-100 already holds the stock; it runs no earnings test. And the same passive money that cannot touch MSTR bought $731 million of Bitcoin through the ETFs on Wednesday. The door was never locked to Bitcoin. Just to the balance sheet holding the most of it.
KEY RECEIPTS
The additions, effective Sept 21: Bloom Energy, Everpure, Illumina. Out: Molson Coors, The Trade Desk, Builders FirstSource (S&P DJI release, the primary).
S&P’s own words: the changes “ensure that each index is more representative of its market capitalization range.”
The screen: positive as-reported (GAAP) earnings in the most recent quarter AND the trailing four combined.
Strategy’s Q2 2026 10-Q (filed Aug 3, SEC): unrealized loss on digital assets $8,315,365,000 for the quarter; net loss $8,219,628,000. Half-year unrealized loss: $22,770,844,000.
Before the mark, the software segment earned: $122.4M revenue, $81.6M gross profit.
The balance sheet the test can’t see: 845,050 BTC; debt $6.754B; preferred $14.789B; cash $6.787B (8-K filed Aug 31). CEBE mNAV about 1.07 at spot. Data: CEBE Tracker.
The Nasdaq-100 holds MSTR today — that index runs no earnings screen.
Related: the $731M ETF day — passive money already buys the coin, just not this stock.
S&P’s own words: the changes “ensure that each index is more representative of its market capitalization range.”
The screen: positive as-reported (GAAP) earnings in the most recent quarter AND the trailing four combined.
Strategy’s Q2 2026 10-Q (filed Aug 3, SEC): unrealized loss on digital assets $8,315,365,000 for the quarter; net loss $8,219,628,000. Half-year unrealized loss: $22,770,844,000.
Before the mark, the software segment earned: $122.4M revenue, $81.6M gross profit.
The balance sheet the test can’t see: 845,050 BTC; debt $6.754B; preferred $14.789B; cash $6.787B (8-K filed Aug 31). CEBE mNAV about 1.07 at spot. Data: CEBE Tracker.
The Nasdaq-100 holds MSTR today — that index runs no earnings screen.
Related: the $731M ETF day — passive money already buys the coin, just not this stock.
THREE SEATS FILLED. 845,050 BTC STILL WAITING ON AN ACCOUNTING RULE.
S&P Dow Jones Indices + SEC filings + CEBE Tracker (cebetracker.io) · Fri Sep 4 2026 · 8:05 PM ET