Tether-Backed Twenty One Capital Moves to Merge With Strike and Elektron in Full-Stack Bitcoin Bet 

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Twenty One Capital is pursuing back-to-back mergers with Bitcoin payments firm Strike and mining infrastructure company Elektron Energy in a Tether Investments-backed push to transform the company into a vertically integrated Bitcoin business spanning mining, financial services, and capital markets. Terms of neither deal have been disclosed.

Tether Investments Drives Consolidation Strategy

Tether Investments, the investment arm of stablecoin giant Tether, holds a majority stake in Twenty One Capital and is the driving force behind the proposed consolidation. The firm plans to nominate Elektron CEO Raphael Zagury as president of the combined entity, alongside current Twenty One Capital CEO and co-founder Jack Mallers, who also founded Strike. 

The structure is designed to generate recurring operating revenue while continuing to accumulate Bitcoin over the long term, addressing the company’s near-total dependence on Bitcoin price appreciation and lack of meaningful operating income.

Proposed Deals Would Substantially Expand Bitcoin Holdings

The mergers would meaningfully grow Twenty One Capital’s Bitcoin reserves. The company most recently disclosed holdings of 43,514 BTC, valued at over $3.3 billion. Strike has publicly stated it holds approximately 1,500 BTC in its treasury. 

Elektron, for its part, has mined more than 5,500 Bitcoin across its managed portfolio and contributes roughly 50 exahashes per second of computing power to the Bitcoin network, representing approximately 5% of the network’s total hash rate. The combined holdings would total approximately 50,500 BTC, placing the merged entity among the largest publicly disclosed Bitcoin holders. 

Twenty One Capital Was Built for Bull Markets, Not Downturns

Twenty One Capital was founded on the premise of offering public investors Bitcoin exposure backed by on-chain proof of reserves, a structure that performs well when Bitcoin prices are rising but comes under significant pressure during downturns due to its absence of operating revenue. 

That pressure is visible in its current stock performance: shares remain down roughly 70% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance, though the stock moved higher in after-hours trading following news of the merger proposals. 

Bitcoin itself traded at $75,755 at the time of publication, down 19% over the past year, per CoinGecko, and has not recovered to the record levels reached last October.

Mergers Aim to Build a Full-Stack Bitcoin Business

The proposed combination of Strike’s payments and financial services infrastructure with Elektron’s mining operations would give Twenty One Capital revenue-generating capabilities across multiple segments of the Bitcoin economy. 

Strike, founded by Mallers, is a Bitcoin-focused fintech firm with an established presence in cross-border payments and Bitcoin financial products. Elektron brings physical mining infrastructure and a significant share of network hash rate. 

If completed, the merged entity would represent one of the few publicly traded companies to consolidate Bitcoin mining, custody, payments, and capital markets functions under a single structure, though the viability of both transactions remains subject to negotiation and disclosure of final terms.