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Key Takeaways
- Shares of Cantor Equity Partners—a blank check company headed by the son of President Trump's commerce secretary—continued to soar after announcing plans on Wednesday to form the world's third-largest corporate Bitcoin treasury.
- Cantor and Twenty One will merge. Twenty One will be majority owned by stablecoin issuer Tether, and its affiliated exchange Bitfinex.
- Twenty One follows in the footsteps of Michael Saylor's Strategy, the world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.
Wall Street's getting a new Bitcoin treasury.
Shares of Cantor Equity Partners (CEP)—a blank check company headed by Brandon Lutnick, son of President Trump’s commerce secretary—soared 50% on Thursday, a day after it announced a deal to take “Bitcoin-native” Twenty One, “a newly formed entity,” public via SPAC merger. The stock price has increased more than 2000% since the announcement on Wednesday.
Twenty One, the third largest corporate bitcoin treasure in the world, is expected to be listed with more than 42,000 Bitcoin. The stablecoin issuer Tether, and its affiliated exchange Bitfinex will own the majority of Twenty One. They are providing 31,500 bitcoin. SoftBank, a holding company for investment, has agreed that it will purchase some Tether shares to acquire a “significant minority” ownership.
In a pitch for private investors, the company stated that it would leverage its Bitcoins to generate returns for shareholder and benefit from Bitcoins’ potential for price appreciation.
The Trump administration featured prominently in the company’s pitch. In March, Trump created a bitcoin reserve. He has also advocated that Congress and federal agencies develop a regulatory framework to regulate cryptocurrencies.
Twenty One follows the footsteps of Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR), previously MicroStrategy. In recent years, MSTR has evolved from a software company to one that issues stocks to collect Bitcoin. Twenty One plans to “accelerate Bitcoin adoption” in corporate and sovereign levels through media operations, and develop “Bitcoin related financial and advisory services.”
Jack Mallers will lead the company, who is also the founder and CEO Strike, an online payments platform. Mallers, according to the company, is “one Bitcoin’s most influential supporters” and “was instrumental” to El Salvador’s decision that it would be the first country to recognise Bitcoin as fiat currency.
