Cantor Equity Partners, a blank check firm led by the son of President Trump’s Commerce Secretary, continued to surge after the company announced plans on Wednesday to form the world’s third-largest corporate Bitcoin vault.
Cantor will merge with Twenty One, which will own 42,000 Bitcoin and is majority owned by stablecoin issuer Tether and its affiliated exchange Bitfinex.
Twenty One follows in the footsteps of Michael Saylor’s Strategy as the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder.
Wall Street is getting a new Bitcoin vault.
Cantor Equity Partners ( CEP ) — a blank check firm led by Brandon Lutnick, son of President Trump’s Commerce Secretary — surged 50% Thursday. The day after the company announced it would take “Bitcoin native company” Twenty One — a “newly formed entity” — public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The stock is up more than 200% since the announcement on Wednesday.
Twenty One is expected to go public with more than 42,000 bitcoins, making it the world’s third-largest corporate bitcoin reserve. The company will be majority owned by stablecoin issuer Tether and its associated exchange Bitfinex, which will provide 31,500 bitcoins. Investment holding company SoftBank has agreed to buy some of Tether’s shares for a “significant minority stake.”
In its pitch to private investors, the company said it would “use bitcoin to generate returns for shareholders and benefit from bitcoin’s potential for price appreciation.”
The Trump administration is one element of the company’s pitch. In March, Trump ordered the creation of a bitcoin reserve and advocated for Congress and federal agencies to develop a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.
Twenty One follows in the footsteps of Michael Saylor’s Strategy Corp. (MSTR, formerly MicroStrategy), which has transformed in recent years from a software development company to one that issues shares to collect bitcoins. In addition to accumulating bitcoin, Twenty One said it plans to “accelerate bitcoin adoption” at the corporate and sovereign levels through media operations and develop “financial and advisory services related to bitcoin.”
The company will be led by Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of payments platform Strike. The company said Mallers is “one of bitcoin’s most influential advocates” and “played a major role” in El Salvador’s decision to become the first country to recognize bitcoin as legal tender.
