MSCI index removal: Nov. 11 list shows if Strategy goes

MSCI will remove index members that fail its new operating-asset screen and four of five financial ratio tests in each of their two latest annual filings. The index provider adopted the rule on Oct. 15, and the changes take effect at the close of Nov. 30, 2026. For you as an MSTR holder, the decisive date comes first: MSCI publishes the final list of affected companies on Nov. 11.

A company that fails MSCI's core screen for substantial operating assets is then tested on five financial ratios; four or more flags make it ineligible. Companies outside the indexes face a stricter bar: failing in either of their two latest annual filings keeps them out. MSCI's August proposal counted a company as operating when operating assets exceeded 50% of total assets. It flagged members only when that share, called operating asset intensity, fell below 10%, against 20% for outsiders.

The Nov. 11 list settles whether Strategy leaves the indexes, and it lands 19 days before the changes take effect. The only holdings figure comes from Strategy itself: about 13 million MSTR shares in funds tracking MSCI's Global Investable Market Indexes, from its 2026 submission to MSCI.

MSCI's May test run would have deleted Strategy

MSCI's August 2026 consultation document ran the proposed screen across the MSCI ACWI IMI, its index of large, mid and small companies in developed and emerging markets. On data as of May 2026, the screen would have deleted three companies: Strategy, Yellow Cake and Metaplanet. The run used proposal thresholds, so it marks the risk rather than the final list.

The impact table listed Strategy as a U.S. large-cap issuer with a float-adjusted market capitalization of $23,931 million. Float-adjusted means only the shares available to public investors are counted, the basis on which index weights rest.

The same simulation would have put Center Laboratories, Lydia Holding and SharpLink on a new public watchlist. That list covers current members that fail the screens on their latest filings but not for two consecutive years.

Take a company whose operating assets make up 15% of its total assets. Under the August proposal, it would have cleared the 10% bar as a current member and been flagged on that measure as a newcomer.

MSCI set the adopted thresholds, with buffers, in Appendix I of its GIMI methodology, the rulebook for these indexes. Buffers also govern the timing of additions and removals. MSCI uses them to reduce turnover, the share of an index replaced at each review.

The 2025 freeze ends at the November review

The adopted rule grew out of a plan aimed at digital asset treasury companies, firms whose main business is holding bitcoin or other digital assets. MSCI's October 2025 consultation proposed excluding them if digital asset holdings made up 50% or more of total assets. Its preliminary list showed Strategy as a U.S. large-cap member with a float-adjusted market capitalization of $84,115 million as of Sept. 30, 2025.

On Jan. 6, 2026, MSCI decided against that exclusion at the February 2026 review and said it intended to open a broader consultation on non-operating companies. Companies on the preliminary list stayed in its indexes if they met the other requirements. MSCI froze increases to their share counts and inclusion factors, the portion of a company's shares an index counts, and deferred additions and moves between size segments.

That interim treatment, first announced Oct. 10, 2025, ends with the November 2026 Index Review. From then on, MSCI assesses those companies, Strategy among them, under the new methodology.

Strategy says funds hold 3.1% of its shares

Strategy measured the tracking-fund stake two ways. In its 2026 submission to MSCI, reported by CryptoSlate and Cointelegraph, it put those holdings at 3.1% of its basic shares outstanding. Basic shares are the common shares already issued, before convertible debt or options are counted.

The company also said the holdings came to less than one day's trading volume. CryptoSlate reports it put them at about 60% of its average daily share volume over the preceding 30 days.

What to watch on Nov. 11 and Nov. 30

MSCI has already posted a list of current members potentially affected by the adopted rule. Check it for Strategy now, then check the final list in the November 2026 Index Review announcement on Nov. 11. If Strategy is on it, the deletion takes effect at the close of Nov. 30.