MSCI to Drop Strategy From Its Global Indexes After Nov. 30, Putting Pressure on Its Bitcoin-Buying Model

Index provider MSCI said it will remove Strategy, the largest publicly traded corporate holder of bitcoin, from its global equity indexes after determining that the company more closely resembles an investment fund than an operating business. The deletion takes effect after the close of trading on Nov. 30, 2026, as part of MSCI's November index review, CoinDesk reported.

MSCI published the final list of affected securities late Wednesday, Nov. 11, under its new "Non-Operating Companies Methodology," according to the index provider's announcement. Strategy shares fell 2.5% in extended trading Wednesday, Reuters reported via Investing.com, and were down 1.8% before Thursday's open, according to Coinspeaker on Yahoo Finance.

How the new screen works

MSCI said ineligible non-operating companies are identified through an initial screen of whether an issuer has substantial operating assets, followed, for those that fail, by an exclusion test based on five financial ratios that are not specific to any industry. A security that is flagged on four or more of the five ratios is ineligible. Existing index members are removed only if they fail the test in each of their two most recent annual filing periods, while non-members are barred from being added if they fail in either period.

MSCI first proposed last year to exclude digital asset treasury companies whose crypto holdings make up 50% or more of total assets, then broadened the review to cover what it called non-operating companies, Reuters said. The new screen was adopted on Oct. 15, according to CoinDesk.

Tokyo-listed bitcoin holder Metaplanet and U.K.-based uranium-holding company Yellow Cake were also on the exclusion list, Reuters reported, while Ethereum treasury company SharpLink was among companies on a watchlist. CoinDesk said Metaplanet is being dropped from the MSCI Japan Small Cap Index. Strategy, Metaplanet and Yellow Cake did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

How much selling could follow

An index exclusion does not delist a stock or force Strategy to sell bitcoin, but funds that track MSCI benchmarks must sell their holdings. In its response to MSCI's consultation, Strategy said funds tracking MSCI's global investable indexes hold about 13 million of its shares, or 3.1% of its basic shares outstanding, which CoinDesk said is less than one day's typical trading volume and worth roughly $1.6 billion at Wednesday's prices. BloFin Research gave a similar estimate.

J.P. Morgan estimated in November 2025 that an exclusion could trigger about $2.8 billion of outflows, rising to $8.8 billion if other index providers followed, though that forecast was based on MSCI's initial proposal rather than the final rules, CoinDesk noted. Strategy had warned last year that an exclusion would lead to about $2.8 billion of its stock being sold and would "chill" the industry, Reuters said.

Pressure on the bitcoin-buying model

Michael Saylor's Strategy has funded bitcoin purchases by issuing convertible notes, preferred stock and common shares. That approach works best when its market value exceeds the value of its bitcoin, a ratio known as mNAV. CoinDesk said Strategy's mNAV has compressed from a peak of 3.4 times in November 2024 to about 1.08 times, and BloFin Research said losing passive demand could squeeze the premium further, making new share sales less accretive.

A Nov. 9 filing covering the week ended Nov. 8 showed Strategy raised $283.8 million by selling 2.05 million common shares but spent only $81.9 million on 1,036 bitcoin, with $188.3 million used to buy back its STRC preferred stock, CoinDesk reported. The company held 850,364 bitcoin, worth about $62.6 billion, and a $4.77 billion cash reserve, and reported no bitcoin sales. Its shares have fallen about 20% this year, Reuters said.

Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, told CoinDesk the exclusion was widely expected and largely priced in, and that he did not expect spillover into bitcoin itself. Independent analyst Derin Olenik said the decision would be "a major blow" to the institutional adoption narrative that treasury companies rely on.

Bitcoin and ETF flows

Bitcoin was down 0.7% at around $73,400 on Thursday morning, with ether near $2,044, as a selloff in technology stocks led by Nvidia weighed on risk assets, CoinDesk reported. U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded $299.9 million of net outflows on Wednesday, according to SoSoValue data, a fifth straight day of withdrawals totaling about $1.44 billion since Nov. 5. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust accounted for $269.7 million of Wednesday's outflow, its ninth consecutive session of redemptions. Ether ETFs lost about $145 million on the day.