MSCI will announce Wednesday evening whether Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, remains in its global stock indexes — after the index provider's own list of potentially impacted securities already marked the company as Deleted.

The verdict arrives with the publication of MSCI's November 2026 Index Review, scheduled for shortly after 5 p.m. ET. MSCI said on Oct. 15 that the review would carry the final list of current constituents affected by its new screening methodology, with any deletions taking effect at the close of Nov. 30.

Five Companies Flagged for Deletion

MSCI's list of potentially impacted securities, published alongside the Oct. 15 decision and built on Sept. 30 financial data and Oct. 9 market values, already marks five companies as Deleted: Strategy (MSTR), uranium holder Yellow Cake, Japan's Metaplanet, Iceland's Skel Fjárfestingafélag and micro-cap Upexi.

Yellow Cake's presence is a reminder that the screen is not crypto-specific: the operating-asset test and the ratio screen apply to any issuer, whatever sits on the balance sheet.

Strategy is the only large-cap name in the group and accounts for more than 90% of the five by float-adjusted market value. The company held 850,364 bitcoin as of Nov. 8, acquired at an average price of $75,456 per coin.

How the MSCI Screen Works

The rule does not mention bitcoin. MSCI first checks whether a company's operating assets exceed 50% of its total assets. Issuers that fail are then measured 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 designed to limit turnover. A company outside the indexes cannot be added if it fails the screen in either of its two most recent annual filing periods, while a current constituent is removed only if it fails in both. MSCI said it may also use the most recent interim filing. The buffer cuts both ways: a deleted company can regain inclusion once it passes the screen across both of its two most recent annual filing periods.

That two-filing test is the question hanging over Strategy. The company adopted fair-value accounting for its bitcoin at the start of 2025, meaning its fiscal 2024 statements carried the coins at cost less impairment — and MSCI has not said how it treats that earlier year. A Deleted mark implies MSCI's draft reading is that Strategy already failed both periods, but the provider has not published the inputs behind that placement.

Strategy has argued that it reports its bitcoin treasury as an operating segment and books related gains and losses in operating expenses.

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, dropped that plan in January and opened a broader consultation in August. The new rule also ends the interim measures MSCI placed on affected companies in October 2025, including a freeze on share-count increases and a deferral of additions.

JUST IN: MSCI decides this afternoon whether to keep Strategy and Metaplanet in its global indexes. JPMorgan estimates removal could trigger up to $2.8 billion in forced selling from passive funds pic.twitter.com/dp7R47U35W

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) November 11, 2026

Source: X (Twitter)

What a Deletion Would — and Would Not — Do

Funds that track an MSCI index must hold what the index holds, so a deletion would force them to sell by the Nov. 30 close. JPMorgan analysts estimated last November that an MSCI 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.

A removal would not delist Strategy's stock, and nothing in the rules forces the company to sell bitcoin. The pressure would instead land on the shares — and through them on the premium Strategy uses to fund new bitcoin purchases by selling stock. In an August letter to MSCI, the company said a deletion "would have no meaningful impact on Strategy's business."

Strategy's own cushion is already thin. It bought 1,036 bitcoin for $81.9 million in the week to Nov. 8, a purchase that left its holdings below its average acquisition cost, with bitcoin trading near $73,900 on Wednesday.

Watchlist Outcome Still Possible

If Strategy fails only its latest filing rather than both, it would not be deleted this round and would instead go on a watchlist. The potential list already places 17 other constituents there, including SharpLink, TON Strategy and Solana Company. Those 17 would face the same two-filing test as Strategy in future reviews.

Tokyo-listed Metaplanet faces the same Deleted mark, after it sold bitcoin last quarter to show investors it could tap its holdings for liquidity.

The test now is whether Wednesday's official list sticks with those Deleted marks, or whether MSCI pulls any of the five back onto the watchlist.

This article is based on reporting by Micah Zimmerman, first published by Bitcoin Magazine.