Tether, Cantor, and SoftBank Found Twenty One to Accumulate Bitcoins

Bitcoin and Crypto enter the nexus of High Finance and Politics: Stablecoin issuer Tether is joining forces with the son of the US Secretary of Commerce and a Japanese technology conglomerate to create another Bitcoin treasury in the United States. The initial capital of 42,000 bitcoins is just the beginning.

MicroStrategy set the precedent; Cantor and Tether are now following suit. At least, that is the official narrative presented in the press release from Cantor:

Brandon Lutnick, son of US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and chair of Cantor, is launching the publicly traded company Twenty One in partnership. This „Bitcoin-native company“ is backed by Tether, Bitfinex, and SoftBank. It starts with 42,000 bitcoins—currently worth around four billion dollars—and its sole objective is to maximize the bitcoins-per-share.

To achieve this, Twenty One will raise $585 million, primarily through public convertible bonds, in order to accumulate additional bitcoins. The success of Twenty One will be measured solely by two key metrics: Bitcoins per share (BPS) and the „Bitcoin Return Rate“ (BRR), the latter referring to the rate at which BPS grows over time.

In this respect, Twenty One is closely copying MicroStrategy’s model, which raises long-term capital through convertible bonds to maximize the number of bitcoins per share. The goal, as with MicroStrategy, is to fuel the company’s stock price—not only tracking the price of Bitcoin, but significantly outperforming it.

The majority owners of Twenty One are stablecoin issuer Tether and the Bitcoin exchange Bitfinex—both sister companies under one corporate umbrella—while Japanese SoftBank Group serves as a minority owner. Each company secures its ownership stake through bitcoin deposits. Tether is contributing $1.5 billion worth of bitcoins, Bitfinex $900 million, and SoftBank $600 million.

The CEO of Twenty One will be Jack Mallers, the founder of Strike, a Lightning Network payment app. While Strike has achieved limited commercial success, Mallers has become a flamboyant, superlative-using spokesperson at most major Bitcoin conferences.

The straightforward interpretation of this news is that financial institution Cantor has decided to mirror MicroStrategy’s success and, in doing so, has found suitable partners in Tether, SoftBank, and Jack Mallers. While this isn’t inaccurate, it’s only part of the story.

Bitcoin Off the Balance Sheet

To look a bit deeper, one must consider Cantor’s key partner—Tether—as well as looming regulation in the United States.

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, currently backs more than 145 billion Tether US dollars with a portfolio of assets. Among these are bitcoins: according to a chart by BiTBO, currently over 100,000 BTC.

The US has realized the crucial role stablecoins play in maintaining and expanding the dollar’s global dominance. The GENIUS Act is set to regulate stablecoins going forward and channel the technical upgrade to the dollar that they represent into well-defined processes. The law specifies which assets qualify as reserves. Bitcoin isn’t included; short-term bonds and, under certain restrictions via overnight repos, even equities are.

So if Tether aims to continue operating in the US, it will need to restructure its reserves over time. The bitcoins must be removed from its balance sheet. Transferring them to Twenty One could be a way to retain ownership. After all, Tether is the principal stakeholder in the new firm. This reshuffling could expand Tether’s flexibility by allowing it to hold its Bitcoin assets in the form of shares or bonds, thereby remaining compliant with impending regulation.

In this interpretation, Twenty One does not simply function as a vehicle for accumulating bitcoins—it also serves as a means for Tether to shift part of its bitcoin holdings into a different form.

Bitcoin and Stablecoins Entwined with High Finance and Politics

A third perspective focuses on the key personnel involved. It’s rare to see such a dense web of connections and overlapping interests.

Let’s start with the fact that US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick served as CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald until his appointment in February 2025. Following his transition into government, he named his sons, Brandon and Kyle, as acting CEO and deputy CEO of the financial institution. This kind of family-driven public–private partnership would likely meet with favor from Howard Lutnick’s new boss, given that Donald Trump’s business empire is also now led by his sons. The era of political clans is back at the highest levels. Create an empire, make sons, and when your retire in politics, put them in the helmet.

Tether and Cantor, meanwhile, share a long history. The financial institution manages Tether’s reserves, including more than $80 billion in US Treasury bonds. Without Cantor, Tether would have a hard time making its astronomical profits, while Tether is the main customer of Cantor. Tether, for its part, is the sister company of Bitfinex, and together they will be the primary owners of Twenty One.

So, we see a remarkable intertwining: a stablecoin issuer, a crypto exchange, the US Secretary of Commerce, and a major financial institution that is a key broker for US Treasuries.

While the union of high finance and government is nothing new, what is novel is that Bitcoin and stablecoins have now joined this exclusive club—and how openly this web of connections is now being displayed.

Why Is Japan’s SoftBank Involved?

What’s less clear is how Japanese SoftBank fits into this network. SoftBank is more of a technology conglomerate than a traditional bank, bringing together numerous internet and digital businesses. However, it also manages one of the world’s largest tech funds.

Since around 2020, SoftBank has invested regularly in the crypto market—in areas such as Web3 infrastructure, the now-defunct FTX exchange, and Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin exchange. After the collapse of FTX, SoftBank shifted away from crypto and refocused on the AI market. Following Trump’s election victory, CEO Masayoshi Son announced plans to invest $100 billion in the US over the coming years, with a focus on AI.

Son himself invested $200 million in bitcoin. He admitted he didn’t truly understand it and sold off his coins in 2018 at a loss, distracted by the constant need to watch the price. As recently as 2021, he stated that while he saw potential in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, both he and SoftBank had moved on.

Did Tether and Lutnick manage to change Son’s mind? Does SoftBank see re-entering bitcoin via Twenty One as an opportunity to strengthen its access to the US market, since Bitcoin bulls occupy the White House? Or is Twenty One primarily a vehicle for converting existing bitcoin holdings into another asset class, to sell or monetize through shares?

Bitcoin as a Global Reserve Currency

For now, such questions remain largely unanswered. What is clear, however, is that with Twenty One, a company underpinned by a substantial number of bitcoins is being established—one that will aggressively seek to accumulate more bitcoins through capital raises. The headline numbers are eye-catching, but particularly striking is the fact that this founding is almost entirely bitcoin-financed, marking the second major US firm to boldly adopt a bitcoin standard.

In other words, the US is already well prepared for a scenario in which bitcoin supplants the dollar as the global reserve currency. Companies like MicroStrategy—and soon, Twenty One—will play a crucial role in transforming parts of the dollar flood into national bitcoin reserves.