MSCI announced Wednesday that it will remove MicroStrategy (MSTR) from the MSCI USA Index, along with the broader MSCI World and ACWI indexes, effective November 30. The decision, part of MSCI's November 2026 Index Review, follows the application of new screening criteria that classify the company as a non-operating issuer.
MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, held 850,364 bitcoin as of November 8, acquired at an average price of $75,456 per coin, representing approximately $64.16 billion in aggregate value. The company's stock closed at $122.35 on the day of the announcement, then declined 1.51% in after-hours trading.
How the Screening Works
MSCI's new methodology, adopted October 15, requires that a company's operating assets equal at least 50% of total assets. Companies failing this threshold face five additional financial ratio tests. Those flagged on four or more ratios become ineligible for MSCI's Global Investable Market Indexes.
The screening replaces an earlier approach focused specifically on digital assets. MSCI had proposed in late 2025 to exclude companies whose digital assets comprised 50% or more of total assets, but dropped that plan in January and adopted the broader non-operating issuer methodology following consultation.
MicroStrategy accounted for more than 90% of the combined float-adjusted market value of all five companies deleted in this review.
Impact on Index Funds
Funds tracking MSCI indexes must hold the index's constituents, requiring them to sell their MicroStrategy shares by November 30. JPMorgan analysts estimated in November 2025 that such an exclusion could drive approximately $2.8 billion in outflows from MicroStrategy, with potentially $8.8 billion in additional outflows if other index providers followed suit.
The index removal does not delist MicroStrategy's stock or force the company to sell its bitcoin holdings. The primary pressure falls on share prices, which directly affect the valuation premium the company relies upon to fund new bitcoin purchases through equity offerings.
MicroStrategy stated in August that an index deletion would have no meaningful impact on its business and noted that funds tracking MSCI's global investable indexes hold 3.1% of its outstanding shares.
Four other companies were also deleted in the review: Japan's Metaplanet, uranium holder Yellow Cake from the United Kingdom Small Cap Index, Iceland's Skel Fjárfestingafélag, and Upexi from the USA Micro Cap Index.
