Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) shares fell about 7% to $114 in Thursday’s regular trading after MSCI confirmed plans to remove the Bitcoin treasury company from several major equity indexes following the November 30 market close.
MSCI announced Wednesday that it will remove Strategy’s Class A shares from benchmarks including the MSCI USA and MSCI World indexes. Its official deletion lists also name the company in the MSCI US Prime Market 750 and US Investable Market 2500 indexes. The changes take effect on December 1.
The decision follows new eligibility rules MSCI adopted in October for companies classified as non-operating entities. Under the methodology, MSCI first assesses whether a company has substantial operating assets. Companies that fail this initial assessment face five financial-ratio tests, with four or more adverse results triggering ineligibility. Existing index members generally must fail the screening in both of their two most recent annual reporting periods before removal.
Strategy opposed the methodology, arguing that its Bitcoin treasury activities qualify as an operating business segment under U.S. accounting standards. Despite its objections, the company had already disclosed in its third-quarter SEC filing that it expected the new eligibility criteria to exclude its Class A shares from the indexes.
MSCI Removal Puts 13 Million Strategy Shares in Focus
The removal could prompt funds tracking the affected MSCI benchmarks to sell MSTR shares as they adjust their portfolios to reflect the revised indexes.
In its earlier response to MSCI’s consultation, Strategy estimated that funds tracking the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes held approximately 13 million MSTR shares, representing 3.1% of its basic shares outstanding.
At Wednesday’s closing price of $122.35, those shares were worth approximately $1.59 billion. Strategy previously said the estimated holdings amounted to about 60% of the stock’s average daily trading volume over 30 days.
Based on that relatively limited exposure, Strategy has maintained that exclusion from MSCI indexes would not meaningfully affect its business. However, its third-quarter filing also warned that selling by index-linked investors, or reduced purchases from those investors, could adversely affect its stock price, liquidity, and ability to raise capital.
JPMorgan analysts had previously estimated that exclusion from MSCI indexes could generate approximately $2.8 billion in outflows. That estimate, however, dates to November 2025 and concerned an earlier proposal targeting companies with substantial digital-asset holdings. It does not represent a confirmed amount of selling under MSCI’s revised November 2026 decision.
The index removal does not affect Strategy’s Nasdaq listing, meaning MSTR shares will continue trading on the exchange.
Strategy’s recent financing activity provides context for its warning about access to capital. The company said in an SEC filing that it sold 2,051,348 MSTR shares between November 2 and November 8, generating $283.8 million in net proceeds, including $81.9 million used to fund Bitcoin purchases. These transactions occurred before MSCI’s final removal announcement.
Strategy Stock Extends Recent Decline; Bitcoin Also Weakens
Wednesday’s 1.06% gain ended four consecutive losing sessions, but Thursday’s morning decline left MSTR shares approximately 20% below their November 4 closing price of $142.54.
Meanwhile, Strategy Tokenized bStocks (MSTRB) traded at $113.59, down 6% over the preceding 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. The tokenized instrument provides exposure to Strategy shares, but its 24-hour price change is separate from the Nasdaq-listed stock’s premarket performance.
Bitcoin also traded lower, reducing the market value of Strategy’s cryptocurrency holdings. The cryptocurrency traded near $73,370 on Thursday, below Strategy’s reported average acquisition cost of $75,456 per coin. Strategy held 850,364 Bitcoin as of November 8, acquired for about $64.16 billion, including fees and expenses, according to its latest SEC filing.
MSCI’s index removal does not require Strategy to sell Bitcoin.