In brief
- MSCI will remove Strategy’s MSTR shares from the MSCI USA Index after November 30, affecting broader global benchmarks.
- The index provider’s new rules target companies that resemble investment funds more than operating businesses.
- Sales by index-tracking funds could put pressure on Strategy’s stock and potentially reduce the amount it can raise to buy Bitcoin.
Strategy reported $19.53 billion in profit last quarter. Yet MSCI, one of the world’s largest stock-index providers, has decided that Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin company no longer qualifies for some of its major investment benchmarks.
MSCI’s November review lists “STRATEGY A”, the company’s MSTR shares, for removal from the MSCI USA Index after trading closes on November 30. The removal would also affect broader indexes that include U.S. companies, such as the MSCI World and MSCI All Country World indexes.
The distinction matters: MSCI is not removing Strategy from the Nasdaq stock exchange, shutting down its business or requiring it to sell Bitcoin. It is removing MSTR from stock lists that investment funds use to determine which companies to own.
For example, an ETF designed to track the MSCI USA Index generally has to sell its MSTR shares when the stock is removed from the index, regardless of whether its manager agrees with Saylor’s strategy.
That is bad news for Strategy because it means less indirect exposure to investments.
Why is MSCI kicking Strategy out?
In October, MSCI adopted new rules for so-called non-operating companies. The aim is to exclude investment vehicles, businesses that mainly hold financial assets, from indexes designed to track operating companies. MSCI’s screening process considers a company’s operating assets and other financial measures.
MSCI’s deletion list does not specify exactly which tests Strategy failed. Strategy, however, argues that raising capital, managing its Bitcoin treasury and issuing financial products constitute a genuine operating business.
In an August letter to MSCI, Strategy called the proposal “discriminatory, arbitrary, and misguided.” It argued that MSCI should be a “mirror of the market, not an arbiter of it.”
Strategy also operates a software business, but Bitcoin now dominates its finances. The disagreement is over whether its Bitcoin activity amounts to running a company or mainly managing an investment portfolio.
Strategy reported $19.53 billion in net income in its latest quarterly earnings. But that does not mean its software customers paid the company anything close to that amount.
Nearly all of its $20.91 billion in reported operating income came from an increase in the accounting value of its Bitcoin. Under rules adopted in 2025, changes in Bitcoin’s market price are reflected in Strategy’s earnings even when it has not sold any coins. A fall in Bitcoin’s price can have the opposite effect.
Meanwhile, its software division reported quarterly revenue of $125.4 million, down 3% from a year earlier. Its revenue for all of 2025 was $477.2 million, slightly below the $486.3 million reported in 2019, before Strategy began buying Bitcoin.
Could this hurt Bitcoin?
The immediate risk is selling pressure on MSTR, not Bitcoin. Strategy estimated that funds linked to MSCI indexes hold about 13 million of its shares, equal to 3.1% of its outstanding common stock. That does not necessarily mean all those shares will be sold suddenly, and Strategy says the amount is manageable.
Strategy has repeatedly raised money by selling shares and other securities, then used the proceeds to buy Bitcoin. If its stock price falls, selling the same number of new shares would raise less cash.
The company would therefore have to issue more shares to raise the same amount, or buy less Bitcoin.
That is why a stock-index decision could eventually affect the crypto market. The exclusion does not require Strategy to sell Bitcoin or guarantee that it will make fewer purchases. It could, however, weaken a key funding source for one of Bitcoin’s largest corporate buyers.
