MSCI will remove Strategy from the MSCI USA Index as of the close of Nov. 30 after a new screen classified the company as a non-operating issuer, the index provider said Wednesday in its November 2026 Index Review. The deletion also takes Strategy out of the broader MSCI World and ACWI indexes. Strategy held 850,364 bitcoin as of Nov. 8, acquired at an average price of $75,456 a coin, or $64.16 billion in aggregate. The stock closed at $122.35, up 1.06%, then slipped 1.51% to $120.50 in after-hours trading as of 5:34 p.m. ET.

The same review removes Japan's Metaplanet from the MSCI Japan Small Cap Index, uranium holder Yellow Cake from the MSCI United Kingdom Small Cap Index, Iceland's Skel Fjárfestingafélag from the MSCI Iceland Frontier Markets Small Cap Index, and Upexi from the USA Micro Cap Index. Strategy accounted for more than 90% of the five companies' combined float-adjusted market value on MSCI's October list. All five had already been marked Deleted on MSCI's potential-impact list, built on Sept. 30 financial data and Oct. 9 market values.

The rule checks whether a company's operating assets equal at least 50% of total assets, then applies five financial ratios to companies that fail. A company flagged on four or more ratios is ineligible for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes. A current constituent is removed only if it fails in each of its two most recent annual filing periods. MSCI adopted the new methodology on Oct. 15 after dropping an earlier proposal to exclude companies whose digital assets made up 50% or more of total assets.

Funds that track an MSCI index must sell the deleted stocks by the Nov. 30 close. JPMorgan analysts estimated last November that an exclusion could drive about $2.8 billion of outflows from Strategy, and as much as $8.8 billion more if other index providers followed. Strategy said in an August letter that a deletion "would have no meaningful impact on Strategy's business." The company reported that funds tracking MSCI's global investable indexes hold 3.1% of its basic shares outstanding.

The deletion does not force Strategy to sell bitcoin. The pressure lands on the shares, and through them on the premium Strategy uses to fund new purchases by selling stock. Seventeen other constituents were on the potential watchlist, including SharpLink, TON Strategy and Solana Company, but those names do not appear among Wednesday's published deletions. Metaplanet is the other bitcoin treasury firm in the deleted group.

Source: Bitcoin_Magazine