107-year-old bank expects all MSCI indices to dump MicroStrategy

MSTR +2.00% BTC-USD +4.35%

TD Cowen, one of the most prominent American multinational investment banks, said it expects all Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) indices to dump digital asset treasury companies like MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), later rebranded to Strategy in February 2026.

The 107-year-old bank expects a formal decision to be announced mid-January 2026.

Related: Michael Saylor responds to JPMorgan’s MSCI delisting warning

MSCI concerned about MicroStrategy's Bitcoin exposure

The remark comes after the Wall Street giant JPMorgan warned that leading equity indices, including the MSCI USA Index, could delist Strategy.

Led by the co-founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor, Strategy turned from being merely a software firm into the world's leading crypto treasury firm. The company began accumulating Bitcoin (BTC) in 2020 and now holds 649,870 coins.

But it is exactly this hoarding of digital assets that MSCI is concerned about as it mulls excluding companies allocating more than 50% of their total assets to crypto assets from the index, the JPMorgan note cautioned.

Saylor contested that Strategy is not a fund, a trust, or a holding company. Instead, it is a public company with a $500 million software business that uses a unique treasury strategy with Bitcoin as productive capital, he said.

Index classification has no bearing on how Strategy views itself or operates, he added.

However, the retail traders with exposure to MSTR shares will closely watch how this plays out.

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TD Cowen calls MSCI's MicroStrategy delisting decision 'misguided'

VanEck's digital assets research head Matthew Sigel shared the TD Cowen note on Nov. 24.

However, TD Cowen called MSCI's decision "misguided" and "unfortunate." The investment bank reiterated what Saylor had said: Strategy is not a fund, a trust, or a holding company; it is instead a public software company with a unique Bitcoin-focused treasury strategy.

The investment bank called the company's Bitcoin treasury operations "groundbreaking" and "potentially revolutionary." Strategy is offering Bitcoin-backed securities where none heretofore existed, it added.

It called the decision to remove Strategy from broad market indexes simply because of an apparent bias against Bitcoin "arbitrary."

TD Cowen says MSTR could see a major sell-off

TD Cowen said that if MSCI indeed goes ahead and removes Strategy, many index funds will be forced to sell their MSTR shares worth $2.5 billion. If other indices imitate MSCI's decision, MSTR shares worth $5.5 billion will be sold.

The investment bank, however, remains confident in the long-term adoption of Bitcoin. It said the index's decision to delist Strategy is nothing more than an "unfortunate speed bump" on the road to global Bitcoin adoption.

It called Strategy an "attractive vehicle" for investors seeking Bitcoin exposure.

The MSTR stock was trading at $172.77 at press time, down 3.5% in a day. However, BTC was up 0.84% in a day, trading at $86,784.14.

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Nov 25, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.