Jack Mallers Is Helming a Trendy New Crypto Company, Twenty One

The newly announced MicroStrategy competitor, controlled by stablecoin giant Tether and its sister crypto exchange Bitfinex, plans to tap capital markets to leverage

Jack Mallers is joining the new generation of crypto entrepreneurs.

The جوان founded and has been running the Strike crypto payments app for the past few years. It's used stablecoin tether (USDT) to facilitate cross-border payments, and is now integrating with the SWIFT network for fiat payments.

But, despite using altcoins for core business operations, Mallers has cultivated a bitcoin (BTC)-only brand over the past few years. This month, he’s continued to tout his BTC-only ethos on national TV appearances as he launches a new venture: Twenty One.

The newly announced MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:) competitor, which is being bankrolled by stablecoin giant Tether and its sister crypto exchange Bitfinex, plans to tap capital markets to accrue billions of dollars worth of BTC.

And it seems that Tether/Bitfinex have decided that a former marijuana industry entrepreneur-turned-Tether app operator would be the perfect CEO to take on Michael Saylor.

How will Jack Mallers grow Twenty One’s BTC?

As CEO of Twenty One, Mallers will be using bond offerings, new software, and various financial services to grow the company's BTC on an accretive basis over time.

In several press appearances this week, he’s been noting how owners of stock in Cantor Equity Partners (NYSE:CEP), which will eventually change its ticker symbol to XXI, can expect him to add debt but make shareholders wealthier in BTC terms.

That accretive dilution is the same forward projection used by MicroStrategy Chairman Michael Saylor. Over time, Saylor advertises a BTC yield, a growing ratio between the firm's Assumed Diluted Shares Outstanding and its BTC holdings.

But hopefully, Mallers will sell Twenty One corporate debt on even more accretive terms than Saylor.

Read More: Michael Saylor suggests selling kidneys as bitcoin dips below $80K

Dual CEO of Strike and Twenty One

Initially, Mallers will be continuing to run Strike, his BTC-focused payments app that used USDT during its startup period.

Indeed, he's explicitly stated his intention to serve as dual CEO of Strike and Twenty One.

For context, the publicly-traded CEP, which might own 2.7% of the combined equity in XXI, closed for trading Thursday at a $255 million market cap. That imputes a value of $9.4 billion for Twenty One.

The market cap of MSTR, Twenty One’s competitor, closed 10X larger at $94 billion.

In September 2021, Protos reviewed Mallers' early career. Given his prominence as CEO of the multi-billion-dollar Twenty One, it's also worth looking back at the subsequent years of his career.

What has Jack Mallers up to recently?

Over the past few years at Strike, Mallers enabled BTC remittances to new countries, Twitter tips, and peer-to-peer payment services in Argentina.

Meanwhile, at the Bitcoin 2022 conference, he announced Strike's integration with Shopify (NYSE:), NCR's point-of-sale terminals, and prepaid payment service provider Blackhawk Network. He promised that everyday consumers would be able to use Strike to buy McDonald's or Wendy's using BTC - which never happened.

what ever happened to the fake news about mcdonalds and walmart and wendys and best buy accepting lightning payments in store?are we just going to pretend this charade never happened? pic.twitter.com/nhLa8NunEu

In August 2022, Mallers announced a Strike-branded Visa card, and by December 2022, it began its expansion into Africa by launching the Send Globally feature. This initially enabled Strike users in the US to send money to Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria.

By May 2023, its services were available in 65 countries.

More recently, Strike launched a new customer service feature, Callback Phone Support, which enabled users to request a phone call from a customer service representative. (Crypto exchanges are typically limited to internet-based support only.)

Last year, Strike reported $6 billion in volume and gross profit margins of 85% on its transaction fees in 2024. It forecasted eight to nine-figure net profits in 2025, with a team of approximately 75 full-time employees.

Mallers continues his Tether-supported career

Mallers has been working with Tether for several years and became closely involved in El Salvador's bitcoin efforts. From a major conference stage, Mallers announced President Nayib Bukele's plan to make bitcoin legal tender in 2021.

He also moved Strike's headquarters to El Salvador in 2023. Tether also has its global headquarters in El Salvador.

Mallers has recently