MSCI Cuts Strategy, Metaplanet From Indexes on November 30

MSCI will delist bitcoin treasury companies Strategy from its USA Index and Metaplanet from its Japan Small Cap Index at the close of November 30, according to filings. Ethereum treasury firm Sharplink escaped the cut, absent from the list of deletions in the November small-cap review.

The removals follow new eligibility rules MSCI adopted last month for so-called non-operating companies, which weigh operating assets against five financial measures. Those rules replaced temporary restrictions on firms holding at least half their assets in crypto, with removal triggered by failing the screen for two consecutive annual filing periods.

Michael Saylor and CEO Phong Le had blasted the proposed treatment of digital asset treasuries as discriminatory, and the review offered no company-specific reasons. In a September letter, Strategy argued exclusion would barely dent its business but would tarnish MSCI's reputation as a neutral index provider.

Strategy's MSTR shares fell 2.6% in after-hours trading to $119.06 following the announcement, piling fresh pressure on the world's largest corporate bitcoin treasury. Metaplanet had already closed down 2.53% at 231 yen in Tokyo before MSCI published the changes, which take effect alongside the month-end reshuffle.

Jensen Huang Exits Nvidia After 33 Years as CEO

Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's president and CEO with immediate effect, ending a 33-year run atop the chipmaker he co-founded, after reports of affairs with a suspected Chinese spy and a company executive. CFO Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO while the board hunts for a permanent successor.

The scandal erased about $430 billion of Nvidia's market value in two days, and shares fell 7.7% to $160.28 after the open, briefly touching $148.80. Former Synopsys chief Harvey Jones became the board's first-ever chair, while Huang remains the largest shareholder with roughly 3.6% of the company.

Tether, Tron Form Crime Task Force After $7 Billion Freezes

Tron, Tether and Chainalysis formed the Digital Crime Task Force to identify and disrupt illicit activity involving USDT on the Tron blockchain, aiming to speed asset freezes before criminals move funds. The alliance replaces the T3 Financial Crime Unit with TRM Labs, disbanded after slow responses and poor coordination.

Chainalysis said AI-enabled scams were 4.5 times more profitable than conventional schemes last year, with impersonation scams up more than 1,400%. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the issuer has frozen more than $7 billion tied to illicit activity, working with over 360 agencies across 73 countries.

SEC Backs CFTC in Stock Perps Fight With Citadel

The SEC filed an amicus brief backing the CFTC in a lawsuit from the Capital Markets Alliance, whose members include Cboe and Citadel Securities, seeking to overturn approval of single-stock perpetual derivatives. The agency rejected the group's depiction of a CFTC gone rogue and an SEC gone missing.

Coinbase, Kalshi and Kraken parent Payward, whose applications to list equity perps were deemed approved on November 2, filed a joint brief against the alliance. Better Markets and former SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee argued the opposite, calling the products securities swaps that belong under SEC oversight.

Data of the Day

Short-term bitcoin holders sent roughly 47,300 BTC to exchanges below their purchase price over 24 hours, versus about 1,100 BTC arriving at exchanges at a profit, CryptoQuant's short-term holder data shows. Combined inflows near 48,500 BTC are worth around $3.6 billion with bitcoin trading close to $74,000.

Analyst Amr Taha counted 46,060 BTC in loss-making deposits on November 10, roughly 27 coins at a loss for every one in profit, after a 50,790 BTC spike on November 3. Binance absorbed 8,114 BTC from week-old coins on November 3 as bitcoin slid from $85,000.

More Breaking News

• Kraken parent Payward added over 200 tokenized UK and European stocks to xStocks, lifting its tokenized stock lineup above 1,500 assets as unique holders topped 550,000.
• Eighteen crypto firms told a court Illinois' planned 0.2% crypto transaction tax is too vague to enforce, sweeping in developers with no customers or control of assets.
• Visa began supporting Western Union's USDPT for VisaNet settlement through Anchorage Digital Bank, as total stablecoin supply slipped to about $280 billion from $300 billion in March.
• India's financial crimes agency searched premises linked to CoinDCX and Delta Exchange over alleged unauthorized cross-border trades routed through Binance, KuCoin and Hyperliquid using USDT.
• KPMG issued a clean audit of Tether Gold's issuer after physically counting every bar backing 520,089 XAUT, a gold-backed token holding $2.246 billion in bullion.
• Gemini sold UK and EU operations to stablecoin payments firm KAST for under $10 million, months after winding down overseas markets and cutting about 25% of its workforce.
• Chainstack disclosed an AI-powered breach that exposed customer names, emails and password hashes, after an attacker using the ARTEX agent framework entered through an exposed Grafana instance.
• Coinbase's EU policy head warned that proposed EU DeFi rules could push users toward riskier platforms, as MiCA-licensed exchanges may limit or drop DeFi access entirely.