Michael Saylor, the prominent Bitcoin advocate and co-founder of the Bitcoin treasury company Strategy (MSTR), publicly reacted to his company's rejection from the S&P 500 index. Despite MSTR's significant market outperformance, the official decision on Friday, September 5, was negative, leading Saylor to emphasize the company's superior returns compared to the S&P 500 itself.

The announcement of Strategy's exclusion from the prestigious S&P 500 index sparked an immediate market reaction, with MSTR shares dropping more than 2% in after-hours trading. Interestingly, while Strategy was snubbed, another large company with direct ties to the crypto space, the Robinhood platform—known for allowing retail users to invest in both traditional stocks and crypto products—was included. Alongside Robinhood, mobile technology company AppLoving and construction firm Emcon Group made the cut, replacing exiting companies such as Caesars Entertainment, MarketAxess Holdings, and Enphase Energy.

In response to the decision, Saylor posted a tweet featuring an infographic that vividly illustrated MSTR's commanding lead over the S&P 500 (SPY). The data revealed a striking 92% surge for MSTR, dramatically overshadowing SPY's 14% increase in annualized growth during what Saylor terms the 'Bitcoin Standard Era Return.' What was even more remarkable, and highlighted by Saylor, was that MSTR had also outperformed Bitcoin itself, which registered a 55% annualized growth in the same period, underscoring the efficacy of Strategy's Bitcoin-centric approach.

Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas shed light on the perplexing rejection, noting that Strategy had met various objective criteria for inclusion, including market capitalization, liquidity, and public float. However, Balchunas explained that the S&P 500 is essentially an 'active fund run by a secret committee,' whose non-public members have the final say. This secretive committee considers qualitative factors and can reject companies based on what are often subjective criteria, implying that the decision was not solely based on quantitative metrics.

Despite this significant setback, Strategy's official X account swiftly affirmed the company's unwavering commitment to its core strategy. They tweeted that MSTR would certainly maintain its course and would not be deterred from its dedicated Bitcoin path. Meanwhile, in the broader cryptocurrency market context, Bitcoin was observed changing hands at $110,832, following a slight dip of 0.5% over the preceding hour, according to CoinGecko data.