MSCI Removes Strategy From USA Index by Nov. 30 Deadline

By Elena Vasquez

MSCI will remove Strategy from its USA Index at the close of Nov. 30, requiring funds that track the benchmark to sell the company’s shares as they realign. The same November review also removes Strategy from the broader MSCI World and ACWI indexes, according to MSCI.

The decision covers three benchmark memberships, but the clearest immediate obligation comes through the USA Index. The broader deletions extend the realignment requirement to portfolios that track World and ACWI, without changing the treatment of Strategy’s corporate treasury.

What does the index removal require?

The operative requirement falls on benchmark-tracking funds: they must complete Strategy share sales by the Nov. 30 close. MSCI’s decision does not delist Strategy shares from public trading, and it does not require Strategy to sell bitcoin.

That distinction matters because index membership governs which securities a tracking portfolio must hold after rebalancing. It does not dictate the issuer’s treasury transactions. The sell order therefore originates with the portfolio, not with Strategy.

Why did MSCI classify Strategy as non-operating?

MSCI’s November review applied a new screening method and classified Strategy as a non-operating issuer. Its methodology first asks whether “operating assets equal at least 50% of total assets,” a threshold equivalent to at least one dollar in operating assets for every two dollars of total assets.

Companies that fail that initial test then face five financial ratios. Failure on four or more, or 80% of the second-stage test, makes a company ineligible for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes.

This creates a two-stage screen rather than a single cutoff. A company that passes the 50% asset test avoids the ratio review; one that falls below it must pass at least four of the five ratios to remain eligible.

MSCI does not name Bitcoin as an exclusion criterion in its stated screen. The framework targets issuer financial composition, rather than excluding companies categorically because they hold bitcoin. The practical takeaway is that the issuer’s operating profile, not bitcoin ownership, drove the stated treatment.

The announcement does not specify which ratios Strategy failed or whether it cleared the initial asset test. That omission limits any attempt to isolate the precise numerical trigger.

Must Strategy liquidate its bitcoin?

No. Strategy held 850,364 BTC as of Nov. 8, and the index deletion does not require the company to sell those holdings. The treasury contains more than 850,000 bitcoin, separate from the Strategy shares that benchmark funds must sell.

Index-tracking funds sell securities to mirror their benchmarks; Strategy controls its own treasury decisions. The action creates a fund-selling requirement without creating a company-level bitcoin disposal mandate. It also stops short of delisting the stock.

Which other companies are removed?

The same November review removes four other companies from separate MSCI benchmarks:

• Metaplanet: Japan-listed.
• Yellow Cake: uranium company.
• Skel Fjárfestingafélag.
• Upexi.

Each departure concerns a separate benchmark, so the announcement does not establish that all five companies face identical required-sale mechanics. The Nov. 30 deadline stated for Strategy applies to funds tracking Strategy’s affected indexes, not automatically to every company named in the review.

What remains unresolved before the deadline?

The announcement provides no figure for the number of Strategy shares or dollars that benchmark funds must sell. Without that information, neither the size nor execution profile of the required sales can be calculated from the announcement alone. The immediate obligation is operational: funds must realign their portfolios by the Nov. 30 close.

The broader market-structure consequence is exclusion from three MSCI indexes. Under the stated method, future inclusion depends on Strategy meeting the operating-asset threshold and, where applicable, passing the financial-ratio review. The next hard deadline is the Nov. 30 close, when affected benchmark funds must finish selling Strategy shares.