MSCI has adopted index rules that could remove Strategy (MSTR), Metaplanet and Upexi from its Global Investable Market Indexes, with the final deletion list due Nov. 11 and changes effective Nov. 30, 2026.

The index provider confirmed Thursday that it will implement the "non-operating companies methodology" it proposed in August. The rules make companies that fail MSCI's operating-business screens ineligible for inclusion in its flagship global indexes. Strategy, Japan's Metaplanet and Upexi were previously identified as candidates for deletion under the methodology.

Several other crypto treasury companies face a slower path out. Sharplink (SBET), Ton Strategy Company (TONX), Solana Company (HSDT) and DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV) would land on a watchlist for potential removal rather than immediate deletion.

How does the screen work?

MSCI will assess companies on their operating assets and five financial ratios. A company that fails at least four of the five tests can be deemed ineligible. Existing index members generally must fail the screen across two annual reporting periods before they are removed, which gives incumbents a longer runway than new entrants.

What does this change for the crypto treasury model? In practice, it threatens the passive demand that has cushioned these stocks. Funds tracking MSCI indexes would have to sell shares of any deleted company, pressuring prices and cutting off a structural buyer base.

Critics of the change frame the stakes in blunt terms. "It removes a company from the default portfolios of tens of millions of people who never chose to remove it," said Conner Brown, executive director of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, in September. He was describing broad-market index exclusion generally, with Strategy as the example.

What's the money at stake?

JPMorgan analysts previously estimated that Strategy's exclusion from MSCI indexes could trigger roughly $2.8 billion in selling. That estimate related to MSCI's earlier digital asset proposal, not the rules adopted Thursday, so the final figure under the new methodology may differ.

Strategy has pushed back, but softly. In August, the company opposed the changes while playing down the disruption. It said funds tracking MSCI's Global Investable Market Indexes hold approximately 13 million of its shares, or 3.1% of basic shares outstanding. Strategy noted those holdings amount to less than one day of trading volume.

The company's argument is essentially that index flows are marginal to its liquidity. The counterargument, from analysts and index strategists, is that forced selling tends to arrive all at once — and that losing index membership removes a recurring source of demand that never has to be persuaded.

For the watchlist names — Sharplink, Ton Strategy, Solana Company and DeFi Development Corp. — the immediate effect is uncertainty rather than deletion. Their fate depends on how their financial ratios evolve over the coming reporting periods, and whether they can satisfy at least two of MSCI's five tests.

The market now has a hard date to work around. MSCI publishes its final removal list on Nov. 11, and any deletions take effect on Nov. 30, 2026, giving index funds and treasury companies alike a defined window to reposition.