Tether buys SoftBank stake in Twenty One Capital

Tether purchased SoftBank’s roughly 26% stake in Twenty One Capital for an undisclosed amount, the companies announced Wednesday. The transaction transfers SoftBank’s board seats to Tether; SoftBank representatives will resign from Twenty One Capital’s board. Neither Tether nor Twenty One disclosed how large Tether’s overall stake is after the purchase.

Twenty One Capital launched in 2025 with backing from Cantor Fitzgerald and is led by Jack Mallers. The publicly traded company holds a large Bitcoin treasury and has outlined plans to add lending, mining and capital markets services to its operations.

Data from BitcoinTreasuries.NET value Twenty One’s Bitcoin holdings at about $3.34 billion. A decline in Bitcoin prices reduces the dollar value of those holdings and can lower net asset value for companies that hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets, affecting their ability to raise capital without diluting shareholders.

Shares of Twenty One Capital rose about 4% on Wednesday morning after the announcement, recovering part of an approximately 37% decline since the stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in December following a business combination with Cantor Equity Partners.

Earlier, Tether indicated it would support a proposed merger between Twenty One Capital and Jack Mallers’ payments company Strike. That plan also contemplated combining the merged business with Bitcoin miner Elektron Energy.

Tether is the issuer of the USDT stablecoin. Neither Tether nor Twenty One released financial terms for the transaction or provided a timeline for any planned integrations or new product rollouts. Twenty One’s management has not disclosed specific operational details or schedules for its planned expansion into lending, mining and capital markets.