Tether International has acquired SoftBank’s entire stake in Twenty One Capital, the bitcoin treasury company he co-founded jack mallers, Consolidating control over one of the most prominent public Bitcoin tools to emerge in the past year.
deal, Announce May 20, removes the last major outside ownership bloc from Twenty One’s established three-party structure. SoftBank representatives on the company’s board of directors stepped down upon closing, in accordance with the terms of the XXI shareholder agreement. The financial details of the deal were not revealed.
Twenty One Capital was launched in April 2025 through a business combination with Cantor Equity Partners, with the three founding sponsors – Tether, SoftBank and Bitfinex – contributing bitcoin in exchange for shares at $10 each.
First, Tether She was expected to contribute Nearly 24,000 BTC, SoftBank 10,500 BTC, and Bitfinex around 7,000 BTC. The company debuted with more than 42,000 bitcoins — enough to rank as the third-largest corporate bitcoin treasury in the world at the time, with an implied enterprise value of $3.6 billion based on bitcoin’s 84-day average reference price.
Prior to its listing, Tether added an additional 4,812 BTC worth approximately US$458.7 million to Twenty One’s treasury, bringing its holdings to 36,312 BTC at that point.
With SoftBank’s exit, Twenty One transitions from a coalition-backed instrument to what is, in effect, Tether’s overall Bitcoin operating arm.
The shift is structural: A company that previously relied on three corporate pillars is now almost entirely dependent on Tether’s balance sheet and strategic direction.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino acknowledged SoftBank’s role in shaping the early formation of the company, but framed the acquisition as the beginning of a new phase. “They leave behind a company with a stronger foundation, a clearer mandate, and an ambitious path forward,” he said in a statement.
More than just a Bitcoin vault
This path appears to extend beyond Bitcoin treasury accumulation. In April, I proposed Tether to merge Twenty One with Strike – Jack Mallers’ Bitcoin payments company – and Elektron Energy, a Bitcoin mining company.
This merger will bring Bitcoin treasury, the payments layer, financial services, and mining infrastructure under the umbrella of a single company, transforming Twenty One from a balance sheet trader into a full-fledged Bitcoin holding company.
Twenty One positioned itself as a direct counterpoint to Michael Saylor’s strategy, adopting performance metrics such as Bitcoin per share and Bitcoin rate of return rather than traditional earnings metrics.
