Strategy Made $19.5 Billion in Profit. So Why Is MSCI Removing It From Stock Indexes?
MSCI will remove Strategy’s MSTR shares from its MSCI USA Index after November 30, affecting broader global benchmarks.
MSCI’s November review lists “STRATEGY A”—the company’s MSTR shares—for deletion from the MSCI USA Index after trading closes November 30. That also removes the stock from broader indexes that include U.S. companies, such as the MSCI World and MSCI All Country World indexes.
MSCI adopted new rules in October for so-called non-operating companies. The idea is to keep investment vehicles—businesses that mainly hold financial assets—out of indexes meant to track operating companies. Its screening process considers a company’s operating assets and other financial measures.
MSCI’s deletion list does not spell out exactly which tests Strategy failed. The company, however, argues that raising capital, managing its Bitcoin treasury and issuing financial products amount to a genuine operating business.
Strategy called the proposal “discriminatory, arbitrary, and misguided.” It argued that MSCI should be a “mirror of the market, not an arbiter of it.”
Strategy’s latest quarterly earnings show $19.53 billion in net income. But that does not mean its software customers paid the company anything close to that amount. Nearly all of its $20.91 billion in reported operating income came from a rise in the accounting value of its Bitcoin.
Under rules adopted in 2025, changes in Bitcoin’s market price appear in Strategy’s earnings even when it has not sold the coins. A decline in Bitcoin can produce the opposite result. Its software division, meanwhile, recorded $125.4 million in quarterly revenue, down 3% from a year earlier.
Strategy estimated that funds linked to MSCI indexes hold roughly 13 million of its shares, or 3.1% of its outstanding common stock. Not all of that necessarily translates into sudden sales, and Strategy says the amount is manageable.
The immediate risk is selling pressure on MSTR, not on Bitcoin itself. Strategy has repeatedly raised money by selling shares and other securities, then used those proceeds to buy Bitcoin. If its stock falls, selling the same number of new shares brings in less cash.
The company would have to issue more shares to raise the same amount—or buy fewer Bitcoin.
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