They Tried to Kick Strategy Out of the Index. It Bought More Bitcoin.

From Yesterday's Simply Bitcoin Live | Episode 1616

The Numbers

Bitcoin is holding near $82,500 while MSTR eats a volatility hit that has nothing to do with Bitcoin itself.

The News

MSCI adopted new rules last Thursday that could classify Strategy and Metaplanet as "non-operating" and remove them from its global indexes. The final list lands November 11, with any removals effective November 30. MSTR shares still took the hit early, dropping double digits once the market opened Friday.

Nothing about Strategy's balance sheet changed that day. The selloff was index mechanics, not fundamentals, and the company kept buying straight through it, adding more Bitcoin to a pile that now sits around 848,500 coins. Strive, the other name on the list of biggest treasury buyers, did the same thing the same week.

An index committee can vote a company out of a benchmark. It cannot vote the Bitcoin off the balance sheet.

Strive bought another 1,223 Bitcoin last week at an average price near $81,700, pushing its total to 36,818 coins. The company also closed a SAT IPO built around a new dividend product paying 15 percent. Strive CIO Ben Werkman has signaled more buying is coming, with chatter on the desk pointing to another 4,000 coins this week, unconfirmed but consistent with the pace Strive has kept all month.

Strategy is untouchable at 848,500 coins. But the real race is for third place: 21 Capital holds 43,515 against Strive's 36,818, a gap small enough that Strive could take the spot as soon as next month if it keeps buying at this rate.

Super League shareholders approved Metaplanet's merger proposal last Thursday. Once the deal actually closes, expected sometime this quarter, Metaplanet contributes 2,100 Bitcoin and 2.5 million dollars in cash, the company renames itself Superplanet, and Metaplanet gets a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin treasury vehicle to sit next to its Tokyo listing.

That is the real play here. Metaplanet has been boxed into Japanese capital. A US listing opens the door to American money, and if that capital shows up the way it has for Strive and Strategy, Metaplanet's current holdings could look small within a year.

The Culture

The show broadcast live from the Plan B Expo in Lugano, Switzerland, where Plan B's head of ecosystem walked through what "Bitcoin City" actually looks like on the ground. Somewhere between 400 and 500 local merchants, including major brand names behind the studio windows, accept Bitcoin through a point of sale system called Naka.

The guest also runs Satoshi Splits, a local meetup he started five years ago that now counts about 10,000 members, with 20 to 40 people showing up most Mondays. This week is Plan B Week, roughly 25 events packed into 10 days, including an academic track and a Lightning scaling session the host nicknamed arcade day.

Lugano isn't debating Bitcoin adoption. It's running the experiment and keeping the receipts.