Deal Overview: $4B Bitcoin Acquisition Nears Completion
Financial Times reported on July 2 that Cantor Fitzgerald is close to a $4 billion SPAC deal with Blockstream founder Adam Back. The deal would use Cantor Equity Partners 1, a special purpose acquisition company that raised $200 million in its January IPO, as a vehicle to acquire bitcoin. Back would contribute up to 30,000 bitcoin (worth over $3 billion at current prices) to the vehicle in exchange for shares. The SPAC would be renamed BSTR Holdings and also plans to raise up to $800 million in external capital to expand bitcoin purchases, bringing total deal value to over $4 billion.
Timing and Market Context
The deal could be announced as early as this week, though terms may still change. If completed in the coming days, it would coincide with what Republican lawmakers have dubbed 'crypto week' as they debate digital currency legislation. This is Cantor's second major bitcoin acquisition this year, following a $3.6 billion venture with SoftBank and Tether in April. Combined, Cantor's total crypto acquisitions could reach nearly $10 billion through BSTR Holdings and Twenty One Capital. Under chairman Brandon Lutnick (appointed in February after his father Howard Lutnick became US Commerce Secretary), Cantor is aggressively positioning itself as a leading institutional bitcoin buyer.
Deal Pattern and Adam Back's Personal Moves
The deal continues a trend of high-profile SPAC-based bitcoin purchases, as investors seek to emulate Michael Saylor's company Strategy's bitcoin hoarding strategy. Adam Back, a Bitcoin pioneer whose Hashcash proof-of-work system is foundational to Bitcoin's security, co-founded Blockstream in 2014 with backing from Khosla Ventures and Baillie Gifford. Beyond this transaction, Back has made recent personal investments in European bitcoin firms: a €5 million equity investment in France's The Blockchain Group and a $15 million convertible bond for Swedish health tech and bitcoin treasury firm H100 Group. These moves signal Back's continued push to bring bitcoin adoption to traditional finance and corporate treasuries.