MSCI to drop bitcoin buyer Strategy from its indexes on 30 November
Why it matters
Index funds will have to sell, and companies built mainly to hold crypto lose an easy route into passive portfolios. For allocators, bitcoin treasury firms now look less like ordinary shares.
Post to XThe short version
Index provider MSCI will remove Strategy, a US company that mainly buys and holds bitcoin, from its global share indexes after trading closes on 30 November. Funds that copy those indexes own about 13 million Strategy shares, worth about $1.6 billion, and will need to sell them. Japan's Metaplanet is also being removed from one index.
Here's what happened. MSCI, which builds the share indexes that many big funds copy, published its November review on 11 November. Strategy is among the companies leaving the MSCI USA Index, with the change taking effect at the close on 30 November.
CoinDesk reported that the removal follows a new MSCI test, adopted on 15 October, for "non-operating" companies: firms whose main activity is holding assets rather than running a business. Metaplanet in Tokyo is also being dropped from the MSCI Japan Small Cap Index.
So who sells? Funds that track MSCI indexes hold about 13 million Strategy shares, or 3.1% of the total, worth roughly $1.6bn at Wednesday's prices, CoinDesk said, citing Strategy's own figures.
Strategy holds 850,364 bitcoin and has relied on selling new shares to buy more. In the week to 8 November it raised $283.8m from share sales but put only $81.9m of that into bitcoin, according to a filing cited by CoinDesk.
Thielen of 10x Research told CoinDesk the move had been widely expected and was mostly priced in.
Where this comes from
Written with AI from the sources above and checked against them before publishing. Here's how we work. This is news, not financial advice. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
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