MSCI adopts rules that could remove Strategy from its indexes

MSCI has adopted rules that could push Strategy, Metaplanet and Upexi out of its global indexes. The company announced the decision on Thursday, October 15. It covers a methodology for "non-operating companies" that was proposed back in August.

MSCI will publish the final deletion list on November 11, and it takes effect on November 30, 2026. For firms whose balance sheets are mostly crypto, this is the first hard date. According to Cointelegraph, at least seven public companies are at risk.

What exactly changed in the rules

"Non-operating companies" are now ineligible for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes. It is a broad index family that funds around the world benchmark against, and they buy and sell shares along with it.

The screening runs in two steps. First MSCI looks at a company's operating assets, then at five financial ratios. A company that fails at least four of the five tests can be deemed ineligible. Companies already in the index get an extra filter, and as a general rule they must fail the screening across two annual reporting periods.

Seven names in the risk zone

MSCI had already named Strategy among those to be deleted under the new methodology. The same goes for Metaplanet and Upexi. There is also a "watchlist" of candidates for possible removal:

• SharpLink (SBET)
• TON Strategy Company (TONX)
• Solana Company (HSDT) and DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV), both tied to Solana

The biggest bitcoin player among these names is Strategy. After its latest purchase of 250 BTC, its balance stands at 848,250 Bitcoin.

How many shares could be sold by force

Two estimates diverge sharply here, and they are easy to mix up. JPMorgan analysts earlier figured that removing Strategy from MSCI indexes could trigger roughly $2.8 billion in selling. But that number was tied to an earlier digital asset proposal, not to the rules adopted on Thursday.

Strategy itself opposed the changes in August but played down the impact. By its count, funds tracking the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes hold about 13 million shares, or 3.1% of basic shares outstanding. The company says that is less than one day of trading volume.

One number scares, the other soothes. Which is closer to reality, November will show.

Why two years of reporting do not settle the question

The two-annual-period rule looks like a buffer for companies already in the index. Yet MSCI named Strategy among those to be deleted and gave a date for the list. How the two fit together is not explained in the sources, so a clearer picture arrives on November 11.

The watchlist is only a warning, not a removal decision.

Who says what about the exclusion

"It removes a company from the default portfolios of tens of millions of people who never chose to remove it."

Conner Brown, executive director of the Bitcoin Policy Institute, September 2026, on exclusion from broad indexes using Strategy as the example

Strategy's position is simple, it sees the damage as limited. Critics such as the Bitcoin Policy Institute stress something else, namely that the decision will hit passive portfolios whose owners chose nothing.

What to check before November 30

The rule is adopted, 4 tests out of 5 decide a company's fate, the list lands on November 11, and it takes effect on November 30. The real scale of selling depends on whether it lands closer to JPMorgan's $2.8 billion or to Strategy's 13 million shares. We are watching the list and which watchlist companies pass the screening.