A new Bitcoin heavyweight is entering the scene: Tether and Bitfinex are teaming up with financial giants Cantor Fitzgerald and SoftBank to establish a new publicly traded company: Twenty One.

A new Bitcoin heavyweight is entering the scene: Crypto companies Tether and Bitfinex are teaming up with financial giants Cantor Fitzgerald and SoftBank to establish a new publicly traded company: Twenty One.

Crypto companies Tether and Bitfinex, financial giants Cantor Fitzgerald and SoftBank, and blockchain startup Block.io are joining forces to launch a new, publicly traded company: Twenty One. The company is expected to launch with Bitcoin assets of more than 42,000 BTC (currently valued at around $3.9 billion).

The company will be formed through a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners (Nasdaq: CEP), a spin-off of Cantor Fitzgerald. Tether and Bitfinex will become majority owners of Twenty One, while SoftBank will hold a minority stake.

Twenty One will also offer Bitcoin-native lending and additional financial products, aiming to establish a complete ecosystem around the cryptocurrency. Jack Mallers, founder of the Bitcoin payment service Strike, has been appointed CEO.

To fund the launch, CEP plans to raise $385 million through convertible notes and $200 million through private equity with Twenty One. The proceeds will be used for Bitcoin purchases and general corporate purposes. Twenty One’s shares will trade under the ticker XXI.

“We don’t want to beat the market, we want to build a new one,” says Mallers about Twenty One’s vision.

The company’s business model is strongly reminiscent of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which was the first publicly traded company to purchase Bitcoin on a large scale and is now the largest company holder with over 538,000 BTC. Here, too, investors gain indirect exposure to Bitcoin through shares.

The founding of Twenty One takes place in a politically favorable environment for crypto. After President Trump’s administration began focusing on cutting the national debt, several administrative units have been working on new legislation for crypto regulation.

The SEC has already dropped several lawsuits against crypto companies, and new stablecoin legislation is in the pipeline. Tether, issuer of the stablecoin USDT, will supply Twenty One with Bitcoin – likely relying on debt financing for the purchase.

Cantor Fitzgerald, closely associated with the Trump administration, already manages Tether’s US Treasury bonds and is also playing a key role in this project.

With Twenty One, a new Bitcoin giant is emerging on the Nasdaq – and with some illustrious names behind it. If the concept works, the company could establish itself as a direct competitor to MicroStrategy – and offer investors another way to invest in Bitcoin without having to hold the coins themselves.

(Featured image by Kanchanara via Unsplash)

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