MSCI finalizes rules that could remove Strategy and Metaplanet from global equity indexes

MSCI finalized rules Thursday that could remove Strategy and Metaplanet from its global equity indexes, a step that would force index-tracking funds to sell shares of the two bitcoin-holding companies.

Under the rules, first proposed in August, companies that mostly hold investments rather than run an operating business become ineligible for MSCI's Global Investable Market Indexes. MSCI already excludes investment funds and similar vehicles; the finalized screen extends that treatment to companies that resemble them. The list of affected firms is due Nov. 11, and the change takes effect at the close of Nov. 30.

Strategy, based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, is the largest publicly listed bitcoin holder, with 848,250 BTC worth about $69.67 billion, according to Bitcoin Treasuries. It tends to fund purchases by selling preferred shares such as STRC and STRK.

JPMorgan analysts have estimated that index exclusion could trigger about $2.8 billion of outflows from MSTR stock. The shares closed at $151.29 Thursday, down about 72% from a record high of $543 in November 2024, according to TradingView. Tokyo-based Metaplanet closed at 277 yen ($1.75), against a peak of 1,930 yen in June 2025.

The selling would hit the shares, not bitcoin. Funds shedding the stock does not mean Strategy would sell its bitcoin. But weaker demand for the shares could make it harder to raise the money the companies use to buy more bitcoin.

Decentralized infrastructure network ZEROBASE said on X: "Passive capital has become an important source of demand for these stocks; any sustained reduction in that bid could tighten the equity-issuance window that several of them rely on to fund further purchases."

Strategy, originally MicroStrategy, sells business intelligence software to companies including Coca-Cola and Porsche. Founder Michael Saylor has described the company as an operating business with a software arm and its bitcoin treasury as a distinct business segment, and he has rejected comparisons with investment funds.

One measure of concentration: a single August purchase supplied 78% of public companies' bitcoin buys last quarter. Strategy's coin purchases have become the residual of its preferred stack, which keeps the coin-buying rate downstream of demand for its securities. The MSCI screen applies whether or not either company sells a single bitcoin.