This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Tether’s control over Twenty One Capital could be expanding at a pivotal moment for the digital-asset treasury market. The stablecoin company said Tuesday it had bought out SoftBank Group’s (SOBKY) ownership in Twenty One, though it did not disclose the price. Bloomberg-compiled data showed SoftBank held about 26% of Twenty One’s publicly listed shares, a stake worth roughly $679 million, while Tether already owned around 45% before the acquisition. For investors, the move matters because it gives Tether deeper influence over a Bitcoin (BTC-USD) accumulator that was built during a far stronger period for crypto treasury companies.
The timing is important. Last month, Tether proposed merging Twenty One with Strike, a crypto trading and spending platform, and Elektron Energy, a Bitcoin mining firm. That could possibly mark an effort to broaden Twenty One beyond its core business of investing in Bitcoin, a model that has lost investor favor as Bitcoin declined and many treasury-company shares fell even more sharply. The original playbook had momentum after Michael Saylor’s Strategy helped popularize the publicly traded Bitcoin treasury approach, but the market has become less forgiving as sentiment weakened.
Twenty One was created in April last year through a partnership between Tether, SoftBank and an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald. At launch, the company managed about 42,000 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $3.9 billion. Tether’s latest buyout could signal that the company still sees value in reshaping Twenty One despite the pressure on crypto treasury firms, while the proposed combination with Strike and Elektron Energy may point to a wider structure built around Bitcoin exposure, trading, spending and mining.
