Tether bought 4,812.2 BTC on behalf of Twenty One Capital
Cantor Equity Partners, Inc. disclosed in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Tether purchased 4,812.2 Bitcoin for a total of $458.7 million on behalf of Twenty One Capital, the recently launched Bitcoin treasury company associated with Jack Mallers. The company is expected to eventually go public under the ticker $XXI, making this purchase a notable early move in building out its treasury base.
The filing lays out the mechanics in direct terms. According to Cantor, under the Business Combination Agreement, Tether agreed that within ten business days it would purchase a quantity of Bitcoin equal to an aggregate purchase price of $458,700,000. This arrangement is tied to the Convertible Notes PIPE entered into on April 22, 2025 by Pubco and the Company with certain investors, while also reflecting a $52,000,000 holdback amount. After the purchase, the Bitcoin would be placed into a digital wallet held or operated by or on behalf of Tether.
The wallet is public, and the transaction structure is already defined
Tether is currently holding the Bitcoin in a digital wallet that can be viewed online by the public. That detail matters because it gives outside observers a way to independently track the stated holdings rather than relying only on corporate messaging. In the Bitcoin market, visible on-chain reserves often carry symbolic weight, especially when treasury strategies and public market listings are involved.
The filing compares this transparency approach to how some spot Bitcoin ETF issuers and public corporations have presented their holdings. Examples cited include Bitwise and Metaplanet. By using a publicly viewable wallet, Tether and the parties involved are signaling a willingness to let the market inspect the BTC reserve position directly.
The filing also clarifies what happens next. It states that the “Initial PIPE Bitcoin” will be sold by Tether to Pubco at the closing of the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement, and that this will occur upon the funding of the PIPE Investments by the PIPE investors. The purchase price for that transfer remains $458,700,000. In practical terms, Tether is presently acting as the buyer and holder of the Bitcoin ahead of the formal closing sequence, after which the BTC is expected to move into the public company structure.
Cantor Equity Partners is trading as CEP while the merger process continues
Cantor Equity Partners Inc., which currently trades under the ticker CEP, is already active in the market as it works to complete its merger with Twenty One Capital. That public market pathway is central to the broader strategy: combine capital markets access with a Bitcoin-focused treasury model and then continue scaling the BTC base through financing and structured transactions.
Jack Mallers has been explicit about how aggressive that strategy is intended to be. In recent remarks, he said the company plans to raise as much capital as possible in order to acquire Bitcoin. He also stressed an internal objective that Bitcoin per share should never go negative, or at least that this is the company’s intent. This is an important point for investors because it frames the firm not simply as a Bitcoin holder, but as a company trying to preserve and potentially improve shareholder exposure to BTC on a per-share basis.
Mallers summarized that objective in shareholder terms as well: when someone owns shares in Twenty One, the company wants that person to be getting wealthier in Bitcoin terms. That phrasing highlights the core pitch behind the business model. The company is not only seeking price exposure to Bitcoin; it is presenting itself as a vehicle designed to accumulate BTC in a way that benefits equity holders over time.
More than 42,000 BTC at launch would place it among the largest corporate holders
At launch, Twenty One Capital is expected to hold more than 42,000 BTC. That would immediately make it one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin in the world, trailing only major industry players such as Strategy. For a newly launched Bitcoin treasury company, that scale is substantial and signals that the firm wants to enter the market with meaningful weight rather than build a position slowly from scratch.
In another recent interview, Mallers described the mission in broader terms. He said Twenty One Capital wants to become “the ultimate vehicle” for capital markets to participate in Bitcoin, while also building on top of Bitcoin. That wording suggests a strategy that extends beyond passive treasury management and into a larger Bitcoin-native corporate identity.
He reinforced that point by saying the company is a Bitcoin business at its core: Bitcoin is in its founding, in its name, on its board, and in its leadership. Taken together with the newly disclosed 4,812.2 BTC purchase, those statements show a company trying to define itself entirely around Bitcoin as both treasury asset and strategic foundation. Rather than treating BTC as one reserve asset among many, Twenty One Capital appears to be building its public market story around a single, concentrated premise: capital formation in service of long-term Bitcoin accumulation.