MSCI to Remove Strategy From Its Indexes at the Close of November 30

MSCI said on Wednesday, November 11, that it will remove Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) from the MSCI USA Index at the close of November 30, as part of its November 2026 index review. According to Bitcoin Magazine, the deletion also removes the company from the MSCI World and MSCI ACWI indexes. Strategy is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, and its exclusion is the most significant application so far of MSCI's new screen for what it calls non-operating companies.

Strategy shares closed Wednesday at $122.35, up 1.06%, then fell in after-hours trading. Reports on the size of the decline differ because they reflect different times: Bitcoin Magazine cited a 1.51% fall to $120.50 at 5:34 p.m. ET, The Block reported a 2.6% fall to $119.06, and Investing.com said shares were down 2.4% in extended trading. Bitcoin slipped 0.9% to $73,617.58 in Asian trade on Thursday, according to Reuters.

How the MSCI rule works

MSCI adopted new eligibility rules for non-operating companies in October 2026, according to The Block. The rules replaced temporary restrictions on firms holding at least half their assets in crypto. Bitcoin Magazine's summary of the methodology says the screen does not mention bitcoin. It first tests whether operating assets make up at least 50% of total assets. A company that fails is then checked against five financial ratios, and flagging on four or more makes it ineligible for MSCI's Global Investable Market Indexes.

Buffers limit turnover. Companies outside the index cannot be added if they fail the screen in either of their two most recent annual periods, while current constituents are removed only if they fail in each of them. MSCI said the same treatment applies to its U.S. index series. The Block noted that MSCI's review documents gave no company-specific reasons for the removals.

Strategy was not the only name affected. Bitcoin Magazine listed Metaplanet (MSCI Japan Small Cap), Yellow Cake (MSCI UK Small Cap), Skel Fjarfestingafelag (MSCI Iceland Frontier Markets Small Cap) and Upexi (MSCI USA Micro Cap) among the deletions. Investing.com reported that MSCI also placed nearly two dozen crypto and holding-focused companies on an exclusion watchlist. The Block said Sharplink, the Ethereum treasury company, was not among the November small-cap deletions.

Strategy's position

Strategy has argued against exclusion. In an August letter cited by Bitcoin Magazine, the company said a deletion "would have no meaningful impact on Strategy's business." The Block reported that Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and Phong Le criticized the proposed treatment of digital asset treasury companies as discriminatory, and that a September letter argued exclusion would harm MSCI's reputation as a neutral index provider. Investing.com reported that Strategy's third-quarter filing in late October anticipated exclusion under the tightened criteria. TTN Finance covered that filing in its report on Strategy's third-quarter results.

Strategy told investors that funds tracking MSCI's global investable indexes hold 3.1% of its basic shares outstanding, according to Bitcoin Magazine. Strategy's market capitalization exceeds $40 billion, with a float-adjusted value of $37.3 billion, Investing.com reported.

The flow estimate and its limits

The size of any forced selling is uncertain. Bitcoin Magazine said JPMorgan analysts estimated last November that an exclusion could drive about $2.8 billion of outflows from Strategy, and up to $8.8 billion more if other index providers followed. That estimate was made under MSCI's earlier digital-asset proposal, not the October screen, and MSCI has published no figure of its own. Some crypto news sites have circulated much larger numbers without a clear source, and this article does not rely on them.

The sources reviewed did not address whether other providers, such as S&P Dow Jones Indices or Nasdaq, will take similar action, so the larger JPMorgan scenario should be read as a conditional estimate and not as a forecast. Index deletions typically cause selling by funds that track the benchmark, but the timing and size depend on how much passive money follows MSCI and how much trading is absorbed before the effective date.

Where bitcoin stands

The deletion comes while Strategy's own bitcoin position is under pressure. According to Bitcoin Magazine, Strategy held 850,364 BTC as of November 8, at an average cost of $75,456 per coin, or $64.16 billion in total. It bought 1,036 BTC for $81.9 million in the week to November 8, which left its holdings below average cost. At Thursday's Asian-session price of $73,617.58, those coins would be worth about $62.6 billion, a figure calculated by TTN Finance from the two sources and not a company disclosure.

Bitcoin has been weak for several weeks. TTN Finance reported bitcoin's drop to a low near $73,761 amid liquidations on November 9, and Cointelegraph reported on November 6 that spot bitcoin ETFs lost $430 million in a day, according to SoSoValue, while BlackRock's IBIT extended an outflow streak to five sessions. The MSCI decision is therefore one of several pressures on sentiment, and the timing of any price move cannot be attributed to a single cause. Investing.com noted that Strategy shares are down about 20% so far this year, compared with about 15% for bitcoin.

What to watch next

The first date is November 30, when the removal takes effect at the close and index-tracking funds must adjust. Strategy's weekly purchase filings will show whether it keeps financing bitcoin buying through stock sales. Bitcoin Magazine referred to the premium at which Strategy sells equity to fund purchases, and an index deletion may affect demand for those shares, although no source quantified the effect.

Investors will also follow the watchlist. Nearly two dozen crypto and holding-focused companies are being monitored, and the next review will show whether the screen reaches beyond Strategy and Metaplanet. The decision also sets a precedent for how index providers classify companies whose main asset is a cryptocurrency, a question that matters for any firm using a similar treasury model.