MSCI Removes Strategy From USA Index, Setting Nov. 30 Fund Deadline

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 their portfolios.

The deletion also takes Strategy out of MSCI World and ACWI, two broader global indexes. MSCI’s November review applies the removal after a new screening method classified Strategy as a non-operating issuer. The same review removes four other companies from separate MSCI benchmarks: Japan-listed Metaplanet, uranium company Yellow Cake, Skel Fjárfestingafélag and Upexi.

MSCI’s screen does not name Bitcoin (BTC) as an exclusion criterion. It first checks whether operating assets equal at least 50% of total assets, then applies five financial ratios to companies that fail that test. Failure on four or more makes a company ineligible for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes.

Strategy held 850,364 BTC as of Nov. 8, and the index deletion does not delist its shares or require it to sell its bitcoin. Funds tracking the affected indexes must complete their sales by the Nov. 30 close.