MSCI Drops Strategy From USA Index, Forcing $2.8 Billion in Sales

MSCI removed Strategy (MSTR) from its USA Index on Wednesday, forcing funds that track the index to sell their holdings by the Nov. 30 close. 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 deletion stems from a new eligibility screen, not from any rule that names bitcoin. MSCI adopted the methodology on Oct. 15 and said the same treatment will apply to the MSCI US Index Series.

How the MSCI screen works

The index first checks whether a company's operating assets equal at least 50% of total assets. Issuers that fail that core screen then face five financial ratios. A company flagged on four or more of them becomes ineligible for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes.

Buffers limit turnover. A company outside the indexes cannot be added if it fails the ineligibility screen in either of its two most recent annual filing periods. A current constituent is removed only if it fails in each of them. MSCI said it may also use the most recent interim filing.

The screen replaces an approach aimed squarely at crypto. MSCI first proposed in late 2025 to exclude companies whose digital assets made up 50% or more of total assets. It dropped that plan in January and opened a broader consultation in August.

MSCI adopted the new methodology on Oct. 15 with minor modifications. It said it would end the interim measures placed on affected companies in October 2025, including a freeze on share-count increases and a deferral of additions.

What does the deletion change?

Funds that track an MSCI index must hold what the index holds, so they will 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. That estimate was built on MSCI's earlier digital-asset proposal, not the October screen, and MSCI itself has published no figure.

The removal does not delist Strategy's stock, and nothing in the rules forces the company to sell bitcoin. The pressure lands on the shares, and through them on the premium Strategy uses to fund new purchases by selling stock.

In an August letter, Strategy said a deletion "would have no meaningful impact on Strategy's business." The company has also said funds tracking MSCI's global investable indexes hold 3.1% of its basic shares outstanding, and that it reports its bitcoin treasury as an operating segment under U.S. GAAP.

Who else was on the watchlist?

Seventeen other constituents appeared on the potential watchlist, including SharpLink, TON Strategy and Solana Company. None of those names appear among Wednesday's published deletions.

Tokyo-listed Metaplanet is the other bitcoin treasury firm in the deleted group. It sold bitcoin last quarter to show investors it could tap its holdings for liquidity.

Strategy, for its part, kept buying. The company purchased 1,036 bitcoin for $81.9 million in the week to Nov. 8 — a purchase that left its holdings below that average cost.

What comes next?

The binding deadline is Nov. 30, when tracking funds must complete their sales. The wider question is whether S&P Dow Jones and other index providers adopt similar non-operating screens, a decision that would determine whether JPMorgan's upper-bound estimate of $11.6 billion in combined outflows becomes a live scenario.