Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Treasury Twenty One Capital to Start Trading on NYSE Next Week With $4 Billion BTC Treasury

Bitcoin treasury firm Twenty One Capital will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange on December 9. The company will use the ticker symbol XXI.

Twenty One Capital is the result of a merger with Cantor Equity Partners (CEP). CEP shareholders approved the deal, clearing the way for the transaction to close around December 8. The merged entity will operate under the Twenty One Capital name.

The company will launch with about 43,514 BTC. At current prices, that is roughly $4 billion. This will make Twenty One Capital the largest BTC treasury company listed on the NYSE. Globally, it will be the second-largest corporate BTC holder after Strategy.

The firm was first announced in April as a joint venture between Tether, Bitfinex, SoftBank, and Cantor Fitzgerald. The name refers to Bitcoin’s total supply of 21 million coins, of which about 19.95 million have been mined.

Jack Mallers, CEO and co-founder of Twenty One Capital, posted on X, “Game on. See you at the NYSE on Tuesday.”

In July, the company added 5,800 BTC from Tether to its treasury. Combined with initial holdings, Twenty One Capital will hold more than 43,000 BTC at launch. The firm plans to continue growing its BTC holdings as part of its core strategy.

Pre-merger, Cantor Equity Partners raised $585 million through Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE) financing. Twenty One Capital also sold $100 million in convertible notes. Part of these funds were used to increase the Bitcoin treasury.

Direct bitcoin exposure on Wall Street

Twenty One Capital’s model focuses on giving investors direct exposure to BTC through its corporate balance sheet. The company will introduce a metric called Bitcoin Per Share.

It shows the amount of BTC held per share. The measure relies on on-chain proof-of-reserves. This gives investors a verifiable reference to track Bitcoin holdings in real time.

The company aims to differentiate itself from other digital asset treasury firms. While competitors like Strategy and Metaplanet operate multiple businesses, Twenty One Capital is designed to focus solely on Bitcoin accumulation and related services.

Tether and Bitfinex remain majority shareholders and support the firm’s public listing. Cantor Fitzgerald provides expertise in investment banking and capital markets. 

CEP offered the SPAC vehicle to complete the merger and bring the company to the NYSE.

Upon its debut, Twenty One Capital will become a key player in publicly listed BTC treasuries. Its treasury, trading structure, and Bitcoin Per Share metric aim to provide a new model for investors seeking exposure to BTC.

The company plans to expand services connected to Bitcoin, including payments and infrastructure. CEO Jack Mallers has said his main goal is to increase Bitcoin per share, reinforcing shareholder value.

Shares of Twenty One Capital are expected to start trading on December 9 under the ticker XXI, one day after the merger closes. 

This post Bitcoin Treasury Twenty One Capital to Start Trading on NYSE Next Week With $4 Billion BTC Treasury first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Jack Mallers’ Twenty One Capital Wins Approval for CEP Merger, Poised for Public Debut on Nasdaq

Twenty One Capital, Inc. (“Twenty One”) led by CEO Jack Mallers and Cantor Equity Partners, Inc. (“CEP”) announced on the 3rd of December that their shareholders approved the combination of the two businesses, meaning that Twenty One is set to go public very soon.  

The vote is expected to have received a lot of attention from retail shareholders, as the  Mallers announced it on their podcast to more than 43 thousand subscribers and their X with half a million followers.  The vote took place at the Extraordinary General Meeting of CEP’s shareholders, who approved the previously announced proposed business combination between the parties as well as all other proposals related to the Business Combination.

“The final voting results for the Meeting will be included in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by CEP,” according to a press release published by the company. 

Subject to the satisfaction of other closing conditions described in the CEP’s definitive proxy statement and Twenty One’s final prospectus, the consummation of the related transactions should take place in the coming days, leading to Twenty One Capital, Inc. and its Class A common stock to start trading on the NYSE with the symbol “XXI” on December 9th, 2025.

The company is expected to exit its “quiet period” after this point and make a series of announcements about the future of the business. XXI announced earlier this year that it had received investment from Tether and Softbank, leading to the purchase of 42,000 bitcoins, which will position it as one of the largest public owners of the asset and is expected to unlock new financial service offers for Strike customers, Jack’s growing Bitcoin financial services app, and Cash App competitor. 

You can read the full press release on the vote here for full disclaimers and details.

This post Jack Mallers’ Twenty One Capital Wins Approval for CEP Merger, Poised for Public Debut on Nasdaq first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strike CEO Jack Mallers Debanked by JPMorgan as Bank Faces Epstein Tensions

Strike CEO Jack Mallers said JPMorgan Chase abruptly closed his personal bank accounts last month without providing a clear explanation, sparking fresh debate over the banking industry’s treatment of crypto executives.

“Last month, J.P. Morgan Chase threw me out of the bank. It was bizarre. My dad has been a private client there for 30+ years,” Mallers wrote on social media platform X. When he pressed the bank for details, he said the only response was, “We aren’t allowed to tell you.”

Mallers shared a letter from JPMorgan Chase, which cited unspecified “concerning activity” on his accounts. The letter, which Mallers jokingly said he had framed, noted the bank’s obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act and warned that Chase “may not be able to open new accounts” for him in the future.

The revelation has reignited industry concerns over “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” an alleged Biden-era initiative that sought to pressure banks into limiting services to crypto businesses and executives. The program’s existence has long been disputed, but critics say debanking remains a threat to the sector.

In August, President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting financial institutions from closing accounts solely because of crypto-related activity. Trump’s Working Group on Digital Asset Markets said the administration had “ended Operation Choke Point 2.0 once and for all by working to end regulatory efforts that deny banking services to the digital assets industry.”

Despite this, industry figures quickly questioned whether debanking had truly stopped. Bo Hines, a former adviser on digital assets in the Trump administration and current strategic advisor to Tether, mocked Chase on X: “Hey Chase… you guys know Operation Choke Point is over, right? Just checking.”

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino also commented on Mallers’ post, writing that the account closure might be “for the best.” In a separate post, Ardoino framed the situation as a testament to Bitcoin’s resilience: “Bitcoin will resist the test of time. Those organizations that try to undermine it will fail and become dust. Simply because they can’t stop people’s choice to be free.”

Senator Cynthia Lummis chimed in on the incident, “Operation Chokepoint 2.0 regrettably lives on. Policies like JP Morgan’s undermine confidence in traditional banks and send the digital asset industry overseas,” Lummis said on X. “It’s past time we put Operation Chokepoint 2.0 to rest to make America the digital asset capital of the world.”

JPMorgan and Jeffrey Epstein

Mallers, who has a history of publicly calling out JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon, used the moment to promote Bitcoin. He posted on X: “Seek truth. Stand with integrity. Fight for freedom. Protect Bitcoin at all costs.” Mallers also leads Twenty One, a public company backed by Tether and Bitfinex, which aims to rival Michael Saylor’s Strategy in acquiring bitcoin.

The incident has drawn further scrutiny amid ongoing controversy over JPMorgan’s past dealings. Mallers referenced a post by Senator Ron Wyden highlighting that JPMorgan executives were allegedly aware of $1 billion in suspicious transactions linked to Jeffrey Epstein.

While the bank has not elaborated on the “concerning activity” cited in Mallers’ case, the closure highlights the broader tension between crypto executives and traditional financial institutions. Industry observers say such actions continue to fuel fears of politically motivated or opaque “debanking,” even as regulators emphasize compliance and risk management obligations.

Senator Ron Wyden criticized JPMorgan Chase for evading accountability over its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, rejecting the bank’s attempt to blame a single former employee. 

Wyden highlighted that multiple executives, including Mary Erdoes and Jes Staley, ignored internal warnings and delayed filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for six years after terminating Epstein in 2013, potentially violating federal law. 

The bank’s response lacked evidence countering reports that top leadership enabled Epstein’s crimes. Wyden issued a letter demanding extensive internal documents, communications, and transaction records to investigate who knew what, why Epstein remained a client, and the delay in regulatory reporting, signaling a call for federal scrutiny.

Last month, JPMorgan research suggested that Bitcoin may be undervalued relative to gold, with potential to reach $165,000 if the “debasement trade” continues gaining momentum. Analysts note that recent gold price gains make Bitcoin more attractive, especially as the Bitcoin-to-gold volatility ratio drops below 2.0. 

Based on volatility-adjusted comparisons, JPMorgan estimated Bitcoin’s $2.3 trillion market cap would need a roughly 42% increase to match gold’s $6 trillion in bars, coins, and ETFs.

This post Strike CEO Jack Mallers Debanked by JPMorgan as Bank Faces Epstein Tensions first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Lava Abandons Self-Custody Amidst Fund Raise, Sparking Controversy

Lava, the Bitcoin-backed loans software company, sparked controversy among Bitcoin CEOs recently, after a series of announcements following a $200 million fundraise. The company, led by Shehzan Maredia, had previously been marketed as a self-custody wallet and platform, mirroring the functionality of DeFi or decentralized finance products. The new update to the Lava app changed the custody model to a fully custodial and trusted fintech platform, raising questions about the lending company’s legal status. 

The announcement about the fund raise drew the attention of Bitcoin industry leaders, who raised questions about the nature of the investment and the implications of the change in custody model, which Shehzan confirmed in follow-up X posts.  

“The security of our users and their funds is our top priority. Every change we’ve made is guided by that. Lava no longer uses DLCs — discrete log contracts — for loans because the technology doesn’t meet our security standards. Our team built the largest application using DLCs, but we discovered vulnerabilities that we weren’t comfortable having (ex., client-side key risk, hot keys).”  

Shezhan added that “Risks we previously thought were impossible, such as thinking oracles couldn’t be manipulated to liquidate individual users, we figured out were possible in practice. We are unwilling to compromise on security for our users at any level, and we take a very holistic view on removing trust, dependencies, and counterparty risk.”

DLCs are a kind of Bitcoin smart contract that can anchor the spendability of a bitcoin balance to an external event, such as the price of bitcoin in dollar terms, through the use of a third-party “oracle”. Oracle-based decentralized finance technology (DeFi) was recently exploited, resulting in a 20 billion dollar liquidation event, specifically targeting Binance’s stablecoin orderbook. 

Their previous technology, which Shehzan says is still used by users who did not choose to update to the new version of the software, gave end users cryptographic control over part of the account via 2 of 2 multi-signature DLC smart contracts, limiting how the Bitcoin put up by users as collateral could move. 

Lava’s terms of service still claim — as of the time of writing — that the company has “no exclusive custody or control over the contents of your wallet and has no ability to retrieve or transfer its contents.” Yet this contradicts statements made by Shehzan in recent days regarding the company’s pivot to a cold storage custody model.

Despite Shehzan’s clarification and posts on X, critics were skeptical of the reasoning. Some users were alarmed at the fundamental change in the custody model, which caught many by surprise and was communicated poorly, if at all.

One user, Owen Kemeys of Foundation devices, wrote, “Did Lava get my informed consent?” sharing a series of screenshots of the app update messaging, which says nothing about the change in custody model.

Will Foxley of Blockspace media complained, “Why did they roll legacy loans over without contact first. Plus, how did they do this if it was DLCs? Did I sign a bunch of pre-signed transactions that gave them control over the entire loan?”

The pivot has also raised questions about the company’s regulatory status and licenses, as centralized and custodial bitcoin-backed loan providers are arguably regulated under more traditional frameworks. Such regulations tend not to apply to DeFi-style self-custody products, precisely because user funds remain under user control, rather than under the complete control of a third party. With trust custodial trust becoming the Lava model overnight, what regulatory status does the company fall under? 

Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike — a competing Bitcoin company with a Bitcoin-backed loans product line and a market leader — questioned the move, particularly in terms of licensing, which Strike has been working to acquire for years:

“If they’re custodial, how is what they’re doing legal?

Strike has been acquiring licenses for years. You can’t just “flip a switch” from non-custodial to custodial and start offering brokerage, trading, or lending services. That’s unlicensed activity, and it’s very illegal.

What licenses does Lava actually have that allow them to do what they’re doing?” 

Bitcoin Magazine has not independently verified Lava’s licensing status. When asked for comment on the legal strategy and status of Lava, Shezhan pointed Bitcoin Magazine to the company’s FAQ, which does not appear to address the questions directly at all. 

The nature of the investment announced by Lava was also called into question last week, as Cory Klipsten, CEO of Swan — a likely competitor to Lava — has also been actively engaging the story, suggesting it is specifically a line of credit agreement rather than an equity-style VC investment into the company. When asked, Shehzan told Bitcoin Magazine, “we raised both venture and debt,” referring to the 200 million raise announcement, though he did not go into details. 

While the story is still developing and mostly involves discussions and debate on Bitcoin Twitter, the drama highlights the high value Bitcoiners place on self-custody and the risk of closed-source crypto applications, which can be updated without proper transparency or information being delivered to users about how their capital is secured. 

This post Lava Abandons Self-Custody Amidst Fund Raise, Sparking Controversy first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.