MSCI Gets Ready to Show Saylor’s Strategy the Door Mitchell Duran Fri, October 16, 2026 at 3:03 PM EDT 2 min read NVDA -0.98% MSTR -10.04% MSCI -1.49% BTC-USD -1.01% Trade NVIDIA on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
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Michael Saylor has had a tough year. It just got tougher. Index provider MSCI is moving to drop Strategy (MSTR), Saylor's Bitcoin-hoarding company, from its global standard index.
MCSCI said on Thursday it would classify "non-operating companies" as ineligible for inclusion in the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes. It reiterated that "investment funds, business development companies (BDCs)" and "other passive investment vehicles" were a no-go. The rule also covers "other corporate issuers with similar characteristics identified through new quantitative screens." The announcement doesn't name any company, but you get the drift that it's pointed at Strategy.
With roughly 1,500 employees, Strategy is technically an operating company, so it doesn't fit MSCI's first category. It can only get caught by the screens (its pass-or-fail test) in the second asking whether an issuer is a company with substantial operating assets. Bitcoin is obviously Strategy's dominant operating asset as the flywheel would certainly not work without it.
Saylor thinks otherwise, but that's nothing new. The company's main rebuttal is its second-quarter 10-Q, filed August 3, which Strategy argues shows its bitcoin treasury is a separate operating segment, not a passive holding. This is likely tied to STRC, but unpacking that logic would be another post. Strategy also records bitcoin gains and losses as operating expenses.
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SCI saves the knockout punch for the end. Starting with its November 2026 Index Review, it will scrap the interim measures covering companies whose digital asset holdings make up 50% or more of total assets. That's Strategy. In case anyone missed it, Strategy sits at the top of MSCI's attached list of potentially affected securities. Japan's Metaplanet and uranium investor Yellow Cake made the list too.
So… what does this mean for MSTR holders? Well, potentially almost $3 billion in outflows, according to JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou in a November 2025 report. If other indexes follow suit, $8.8 billion. That's not great for shareholders, already down over 50% the past year.
Saylor didn't seem all that worried Friday morning. He went on Bloomberg wearing his infamous orange tie, claimed bitcoin was at the beginning of a bull market and noted "banking adoption" acceleration and the general bullishness of the digital asset space.
MSCI is set to release the final list of affected companies on November 11. The new rules will then take effect after the market closes on November 30.
