MSCI Deletes Strategy and Metaplanet From Its Indexes as November Review Cuts Five Crypto Treasury Firms

Published November 12, 2026, 3:40 AM PKT. Based on MSCI's November 2026 Index Review announcement and its published additions and deletions lists of November 11, 2026 (primary sources) and reporting by Bitcoin Magazine and CoinDesk (secondary sources).

MSCI deleted Strategy from its global stock indexes on November 11, 2026, ending the largest corporate Bitcoin ($BTC) holder's place in the benchmarks that passive funds are forced to track, and cut four more companies alongside it under a new rule aimed at firms that mostly hold assets rather than run operating businesses.

The deletions came in MSCI's November 2026 Index Review, published late on November 11. Strategy's Class A shares appear under deletions in the MSCI USA Index in the Global Standard list, and the company does not appear as an addition to the Small Cap or Micro Cap lists, so it is out of the Global Investable Market Indexes entirely rather than moved down a size segment. All changes take effect at the close of November 30, 2026, MSCI said.

The decision closes a fight that has hung over Strategy since October 15, when MSCI adopted the non-operating company screen. Strategy held 850,364 Bitcoin ($BTC) as of November 8, bought at an average cost of about $75,451 a coin, for a total cost of about $64.16 billion, and its shares closed at $121.07 on November 10, down 3.6% on the day and about 17% from their $145.16 close on October 28.

The November 11 list: five deletions, no reprieve

All five companies MSCI's October potential list had marked Deleted were deleted in the final review. Metaplanet, the Tokyo-listed Bitcoin ($BTC) treasury firm, was deleted from the MSCI Japan Small Cap Index, where it was the sole Japanese small-cap deletion. Yellow Cake, the London-listed uranium holder, was deleted from the MSCI United Kingdom Small Cap Index. Upexi, the Solana ($SOL) treasury company, was deleted from the MSCI USA Micro Cap Index. Skel Fjarfestingafelag, the Icelandic investment company, was deleted from the MSCI Iceland Frontier Markets Small Cap Index, which lists no additions at all.

The scale of the review went well beyond the five names. Across the Global Investable Market Indexes, MSCI made 113 additions and 272 deletions from the MSCI ACWI Investable Market Index. The Global Standard Indexes added 13 securities to the MSCI ACWI and deleted 100, while the Global Small Cap Indexes added 171 and deleted 243. The Frontier Markets Index added 12 and deleted 10, and the Frontier Markets Small Cap Index added 100 and deleted 21. The press release names only the largest additions and gives no per-company reason for any deletion.

Not every crypto-linked name was cut outright. IREN, the Bitcoin ($BTC) miner, was deleted from the Global Standard USA Index but added to the Global Small Cap USA Index, a move down a size segment rather than an exclusion. Bit Digital was deleted from Small Cap USA and added to Micro Cap USA, and American Bitcoin Corp was added to Micro Cap USA. Seventeen other companies, including SharpLink, TON Strategy and Solana Company, sat on a watchlist in MSCI's pre-review potential list, meaning they failed the screen in only their latest filing rather than both, and were not deleted this round.

How the non-operating company screen works

MSCI's rule, adopted on October 15, 2026, makes companies that mostly hold investments rather than run a real business ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes. The screen runs in two stages. First, MSCI checks whether a company's operating assets exceed 50% of its total assets. Companies that fail that test move to five financial ratios covering operating asset intensity, expense intensity, operating cash flow, fair-value swings in non-operating holdings and dependence on outside funding. A company flagged on four or more of the five is ineligible.

Current index members are removed only if they fail the screen in each of their two most recent annual filing periods, which is why the watchlist exists: a company that failed only its latest filing is watched, not deleted. MSCI's October potential list, built on financial data as of September 30 and market values as of October 9, already marked Strategy, Metaplanet, Yellow Cake, Skel Fjarfestingafelag and Upexi as Deleted, and the final lists confirm all five. The review was based on data as of a price cutoff of October 20, 2026, and MSCI said results may be updated for corporate events before the effective date.

The rule replaced interim measures MSCI had imposed in October 2025 on companies whose digital assets made up at least half their total assets. It does not mention Bitcoin ($BTC) or any other coin. It reaches any company whose balance sheet is dominated by a held asset, whatever that asset is, which is why a uranium holder sits on the same deletion list as three crypto treasury firms.

The $2.8 billion forced-selling question

The practical consequence is mechanical. Funds that track MSCI indexes have to hold what the indexes hold, so a deletion forces them to sell the affected shares by the November 30 close. JPMorgan analysts estimated last November that Strategy's exclusion could trigger about $2.8 billion of selling, a figure that dates from an earlier digital-asset proposal and does not reflect the rules adopted on October 15. Other estimates put the forced selling at $1.57 billion to $2.8 billion.

Strategy's own numbers point to the lower end of that range. The company has said funds tracking MSCI indexes hold about 13 million of its shares, or 3.1% of its basic shares outstanding. At the November 10 close of $121.07, that holding is worth about $1.57 billion, roughly 60% of Strategy's 30-day average daily trading volume. Executive chairman Michael Saylor has downplayed the stakes, calling the index money a fairly de minimis amount of capital on Bloomberg Talks on October 13 and saying on October 16 that the exclusion was not that important to the company.

The market has not waited for the final list. Strategy fell 9.56% to $136.83 on October 16, the first session after MSCI adopted the rule, erasing about $5.6 billion of market value, and the shares have fallen about 20% since the October 15 close. Bitcoin ($BTC) traded at $74,306 on Binance at 10:30 p.m. UTC on November 11, up 0.86% over 24 hours but still below Strategy's average purchase price of about $75,451, leaving the company's 850,364 coins underwater on paper for a third straight day.

Not a delisting, and no Bitcoin sale is forced

Two limits on the decision matter for anyone reading it as a verdict on Strategy's business. Removal from an MSCI index is not a delisting from Nasdaq, and Strategy's shares keep trading. Nothing in the rules requires the company to sell any Bitcoin ($BTC), and MSCI's lists carry no such requirement. The forced selling is of Strategy stock by index-tracking funds, not of the company's Bitcoin ($BTC) holdings.

The same logic applies to the other four deletions. Metaplanet, Upexi, Yellow Cake and Skel Fjarfestingafelag lose index membership, not their listings, and none is required to sell the assets on its balance sheet. What they lose is the automatic buying that comes with index membership, and the passive flows that follow.

For Strategy, the November 30 deadline now sets the clock. Index funds have until the close of that day to trade out of the shares, and the selling will land in a stock already down about half over the past year. The company's Bitcoin ($BTC) strategy is unchanged by the decision, and so is the question the market has been asking since October: whether a company built around holding Bitcoin ($BTC) can keep financing itself once the index money is gone.

Sources

• MSCI, MSCI Equity Indexes November 2026 Index Review, November 11, 2026 (primary source: results of the November 2026 Index Review announced November 11, 2026; all changes implemented as of the close of November 30, 2026; Global Standard Indexes: 13 additions and 100 deletions from the MSCI ACWI Index; Global Small Cap Indexes: 171 additions and 243 deletions from the MSCI ACWI Small Cap Index; MSCI GIMI: 113 additions and 272 deletions from the MSCI ACWI IMI; MSCI Global All Cap Indexes: 140 additions and 100 deletions from the MSCI World All Cap Index; Frontier Markets Indexes: 12 additions and 10 deletions from the MSCI Frontier Markets Index, 100 additions and 21 deletions from the Frontier Markets Small Cap Index)
• MSCI, MSCI Global Standard Indexes List of Additions/Deletions, November 11, 2026 (primary source: STRATEGY A listed under Deletions in the MSCI USA Index; review based on data as of the price cutoff date of October 20, 2026; changes effective as of the close of business on November 30, 2026)
• MSCI, MSCI Global Small Cap Indexes List of Additions/Deletions, November 11, 2026 (primary source: METAPLANET deleted from the MSCI Japan Index, the sole Japan Small Cap deletion; YELLOW CAKE deleted from the MSCI United Kingdom Index)
• MSCI, MSCI Global Micro Cap Indexes List of Additions/Deletions, November 11, 2026 (primary source: UPEXI deleted from the MSCI USA Index)
• MSCI, MSCI Frontier Markets Small Cap Indexes List of Additions/Deletions, November 11, 2026 (primary source: SKEL FJARFESTINGAFELAG deleted from the MSCI Iceland Index, with no additions)
• Bitcoin Magazine, MSCI Rules Today On Cutting Strategy (MSTR) From Its Indexes, November 11, 2026 (secondary source: MSCI publishes its November 2026 Index Review shortly after 5 p.m. ET; MSCI's October 15 list of potentially impacted securities, built on September 30 financial data and October 9 market values, marked five companies Deleted, including Strategy; 17 other constituents on a watchlist including SharpLink, TON Strategy and Solana Company; Strategy held 850,364 Bitcoin as of November 8 at an average price of $75,456 a coin; funds tracking MSCI indexes hold about 13 million MSTR shares, 3.1% of basic shares; JPMorgan estimated about $2.8 billion of outflows from Strategy; removal would not delist Strategy's stock and nothing forces the company to sell Bitcoin)
• CoinDesk, MSCI makes it official, and bitcoin treasury firms Strategy, Metaplanet are on notice, October 16, 2026 (secondary source: MSCI finalized rules on October 15, 2026 making non-operating companies ineligible for its Global Investable Market Indexes; final list due November 11, changes effective at the close of November 30; JPMorgan estimated Strategy's exclusion could trigger about $2.8 billion in selling; Strategy closed at $136.83 on October 16, down 9.56%; screen checks operating assets against 50% of total assets, then five financial ratios, with four failures making a company ineligible; current constituents removed only if they fail in each of their two most recent annual filing periods)
• news.bitcoin.com, MSCI Rules on Strategy Today and Billions in Forced Selling Hang on It, November 11, 2026 (secondary source: MSTR closed at $121.07 on November 10, down about 17% from its $145.16 close on October 28; Strategy disclosed on November 9 that it held 850,364 Bitcoin as of November 8 with a cumulative purchase cost of approximately $64.16 billion; JPMorgan once estimated a Strategy exclusion could force roughly $2.8 billion in selling from tracking funds)
• Odaily, $2.8 Billion Sell-Off Warning: How Much Pressure Would a Strategy Removal from MSCI Put on Bitcoin?, November 11, 2026 (secondary source: final results expected after 6 a.m. Beijing time on November 12; forced selling estimated at $1.57 billion to $2.8 billion; MSTR closed at $121.07 on November 11, down 3.60% on the day; Strategy held more than 850,000 Bitcoin with a cumulative purchase cost of over $64.1 billion)

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.