MSCI will remove Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate bitcoin holder, from the MSCI USA Index as of the close of trading on Nov. 30, the index provider said Wednesday, after a newly adopted screening methodology classified the company as a non-operating issuer.

The decision forms part of MSCI's November 2026 Index Review, published shortly after 5 p.m. ET. The official additions and deletions lists show Strategy (MSTR) exiting the USA Index, a change that also takes the company out of the broader MSCI World and All Country World Index (ACWI) benchmarks. The November review is one of four quarterly index reviews MSCI runs each year, with changes taking effect at the end of February, May, August and November. The same review deletes Japan's Metaplanet from the MSCI Japan Small Cap Index and uranium holder Yellow Cake from the MSCI United Kingdom Small Cap Index, and it removes Iceland's Skel Fjárfestingafélag from the MSCI Iceland Frontier Markets Small Cap Index and micro-cap Upexi from the USA Micro Cap Index. All five companies had already been marked Deleted on MSCI's potential-impact list, which was built on Sept. 30 financial data and Oct. 9 market values.

Strategy is the only large-cap name in the group and, on that October list, accounted for more than 90% of the five companies' combined float-adjusted market value. The company held 850,364 bitcoin as of Nov. 8, acquired at an average price of $75,456 per coin, or $64.16 billion in aggregate. Strategy shares 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.

How the MSCI screen works

The rule does not mention bitcoin. The index first checks whether a company's operating assets equal at least 50% of total assets. Issuers that fail that core screen are then assessed against five financial ratios, and a company flagged on four or more of them is ineligible for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes.

Buffers are in place to 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, while a current constituent is removed only if it fails the screen in each of them. MSCI said it may also use the most recent interim filing.

The index provider also confirmed Wednesday that the same non-operating treatment will apply to the MSCI US Index Series.

The new screen replaces an earlier 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, dropped that plan in January, and opened a broader consultation in August. It adopted the new methodology on Oct. 15 with minor modifications and said it would end the interim measures it had placed on such companies in October 2025, including a freeze on share-count increases and a deferral of additions.

What the deletion does — and does not do

Funds that track an MSCI index must hold what the index holds, so they will have to 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 rather than the October screen, and MSCI itself has published no figure.

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

In an August letter, the company said a deletion "would have no meaningful impact on Strategy's business." Strategy 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.

Seventeen other constituents were on the potential watchlist, including SharpLink, TON Strategy and Solana Company. Those names do not appear among Wednesday's published deletions; under the same buffering rules, their future treatment will turn on how subsequent annual filings screen, with February's review the next scheduled checkpoint.

Tokyo-listed Metaplanet is the other bitcoin treasury firm in the deleted group, after it sold bitcoin last quarter to show investors it could tap its holdings for liquidity. Strategy bought 1,036 bitcoin for $81.9 million in the week to Nov. 8, a purchase that left its holdings below that average cost.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.