MSCI drops Strategy and Metaplanet from its indexes on November 30, with $2.8 billion of sales at stake
MSCI published the result of its November review on Wednesday, November 11, after the Wall Street close. Strategy leaves the MSCI USA, Metaplanet the Japan small-cap index and Upexi the MSCI USA Micro Cap, after the close on Monday, November 30. MSCI is applying its new "non-operating companies" test, adopted on October 15: a company whose assets are mostly financial and which fails four ratios out of five, two fiscal years in a row, no longer belongs in an equity index. The word bitcoin does not appear in it.
Strategy holds 850.364 BTC, bought at an average of $75,456, slightly above the current price. In November 2025, JPMorgan estimated forced selling by index funds at $2.8 billion in the event of exclusion, and up to $8.8 billion if other index providers followed. Strategy replies that these funds hold about 13 million shares, 3.1% of the capital and less than a day's volume. The stock closed at $122.35 on Wednesday, then lost 1.5 to 2.6% after hours.
Nothing forces Strategy to sell bitcoin. The risk is indirect: a less sought-after stock makes its capital raises harder, so its weekly BTC purchases less certain, while the price fell below $73,000 on Tuesday, its lowest since August 20. SharpLink, the ether treasury, and France's Capital B are placed on the watchlist for the February review.
Strategy, the company that holds the most bitcoin, is dropped from the big stock indexes
MSCI builds the stock indexes that thousands of funds around the world track. On Wednesday evening it announced that it is removing Strategy from its indexes at the end of the month. Strategy, Michael Saylor's former MicroStrategy, is a listed US company whose business has become buying bitcoin: it holds 850.364 of them, more than any other company. For MSCI it now looks more like a fund than a company. Index funds (funds that automatically buy every share in an index) will therefore have to sell their Strategy shares by November 30. JPMorgan had estimated those sales at $2.8 billion. The stock lost about 2% after the close.
If you hold bitcoin, this decision does not touch your crypto, and Strategy is not selling any of its bitcoin. It does weaken a company that buys more every week, at a time when bitcoin is already at its lowest since August, below $74,000. If you hold Strategy shares in a brokerage account, a drop changes nothing for your taxes as long as you do not sell.
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Bitcoin: MSCI removes Strategy from its indexes on November 30, Capital B put on watch
The list came out on the evening of Wednesday, November 11, after the US close. Six companies are marked "Deleted" under the non-operating companies test adopted on October 15: Strategy A (MSCI USA), Yellow Cake, Metaplanet (Japan Small Cap), Skel, Agronomics and Upexi (USA Micro Cap). Nineteen names move to the watchlist, including SharpLink, TON Strategy, Solana Company and France's Capital B. The test has two stages: an operating-substance screen, then five financial ratios, with four flags over two consecutive fiscal years making the company ineligible. The 50% digital-asset threshold of the first proposal is gone.
Strategy holds 850.364 BTC as of November 8, at an average cost of $75,456, after buying 1.036 BTC for $81.9 million last week. Its dashboard shows an mNAV of 1.08 with bitcoin at $73,644. MSCI publishes no passive-selling figure. The $2.8 billion comes from JPMorgan and dates from November 2025, on the earlier proposal; the bank went up to $8.8 billion if FTSE Russell or S&P DJI followed. Strategy, in the August 31 letter from Michael Saylor and Phong Le, puts index-fund holdings at 13 million shares, 3.1% of the capital, or $1.6 billion at the closing price of $122.35. After hours, the stock gave up between 1.5% and 2.6% depending on the feed.
No bitcoin sale follows, and Strategy had warned in its quarterly report of November 2 that it expected this. What remains open: the actual volume of sales by November 30, an mNAV that would fall below 1 and shut off the share issuance that funds the BTC purchases, and the stance of S&P DJI and FTSE Russell, which have announced nothing. For your tax report, nothing moves for your bitcoin. Under French rules, Strategy or Capital B shares you sell fall under capital gains on securities, taxed at the flat rate, not under article 150 VH bis of the tax code: the two regimes do not offset each other.
