Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the largest listed corporate holder of bitcoin, will be dropped from MSCI’s global equity indexes at the close on the 30th of November, the index provider confirmed yesterday after the US close. The shares fell 6.25% today.
The stock closed at $114.70, down from $122.35 yesterday, after trading between $112.32 and $119.65 on volume of 16.2m shares. That is about 32% below its close of $168.50 on the 21st of September. Bitcoin weakness, hot inflation data and rate expectations also weighed on crypto today, so MSCI is not the whole move.
MSCI’s review results, dated yesterday, say changes take effect as of the close of business on the 30th of November. Strategy is removed under a new screen for non-operating companies, MSCI’s label for firms that resemble investment funds. Strategy had said in its quarterly filing that it expected the exclusion.
Index trackers, funds that mechanically copy an index, must sell what they hold. Strategy says MSCI-tracking funds own about 13m shares, 3.1% of its basic shares and less than one day’s trading volume. That is roughly $1.6bn at Wednesday’s prices. JPMorgan estimated in November 2025 that exclusion could mean $2.8bn of outflows, or $8.8bn if other index providers followed, but that was based on MSCI’s earlier proposal, not the final rules.
The larger worry is funding. Strategy buys bitcoin largely by selling new shares, which pays only while they trade at a premium to the value of its bitcoin, a ratio called mNAV. It is about 1.08x, against a peak of 3.4x in November 2024. In the week ended 8 November, Strategy raised $283.8m from share sales but used $81.9m for bitcoin and $188.3m to buy back STRC preferred stock. BloFin Research, the crypto exchange’s research arm, said:
The bigger risk is Strategy’s Bitcoin accumulation model. Strategy relies heavily on capital raising to fund BTC purchases. Losing passive index demand could put further pressure on its mNAV premium, already near 1.08x. A shrinking premium makes new equity issuance less accretive, potentially slowing future Bitcoin accumulation
BloFin Research
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, said the outcome had been widely expected, so most of it was already priced in. Exclusion does not delist the stock or force Strategy to sell bitcoin. The tests are the premium, the weekly purchase filings and whether other index providers follow MSCI.