Tether-backed bitcoin merger unravels as Mallers cedes Twenty One to Zagury
Three-way tie-up between Twenty One, Strike and Elektron collapses, leaving Tether's bitcoin treasury strategy in flux and Mallers at Strike alone.
A proposed three-way merger binding together Tether-backed Twenty One Capital, Jack Mallers’ payments firm Strike and bitcoin miner Elektron Energy has collapsed, according to Bloomberg reporting cited by both The Block and Cointelegraph. Mallers is stepping down as chief executive of Twenty One while remaining at the helm of Strike, which will now continue as an independent company rather than combining with the bitcoin treasury vehicle he founded.
Elektron Energy’s chief executive, Raphael Zagury, has been named as Mallers’ successor at Twenty One Capital. Discussions between Twenty One and Elektron are said to be continuing, even as the wider merger structure that would have folded all three firms into one entity has been shelved.
A consolidation plan that never materialised
Cointelegraph reported in April that Tether had signalled its intention to vote in favour of merging Twenty One Capital with Strike, with a further step envisaging the combined entity absorbing Elektron Energy. That structure would have brought a bitcoin treasury company, a bitcoin payments business and a bitcoin mining operation under a single corporate roof, all under significant Tether ownership.
Tether holds majority stakes in both Twenty One Capital and Strike, giving the stablecoin issuer substantial influence over how the restructuring unfolds. The scrapping of the three-way tie-up leaves Strike as a standalone company under Mallers’ continued leadership, while Twenty One’s future ownership and strategic direction now rest with Zagury and any outcome of the ongoing Elektron talks.
Twenty One’s bitcoin holdings under new leadership
Twenty One Capital launched in 2025 backed by Tether, Cantor Fitzgerald and SoftBank, before Tether bought out SoftBank’s stake in May. The company held 43,514 bitcoin at the time of the reporting, making it the world’s second-largest corporate bitcoin holder behind Michael Saylor’s Strategy, according to tracking site BitcoinTreasuries.
The leadership change comes without any indication that the underlying bitcoin treasury strategy itself is in question, but it does mark a departure from the founder-led model that characterised Twenty One’s first year. Zagury’s appointment installs an executive with direct operational ties to Tether’s mining interests at the top of one of the largest corporate bitcoin balance sheets outside Strategy.
Shares of Twenty One (XXI), which trade on the NYSE, were little changed in premarket activity on Tuesday following the news, suggesting investors had not fully priced the merger’s completion into the stock.
Implications for Tether’s corporate architecture
The unwinding of the merger underscores the complexity of consolidating multiple bitcoin-adjacent businesses under a stablecoin issuer’s ownership umbrella, particularly where founder-led entities such as Strike are involved. For Tether, which controls majority stakes across its bitcoin treasury and payments ventures, the episode illustrates that corporate integration among its portfolio companies is proving harder to execute than the initial merger proposal suggested.
Continued talks between Twenty One and Elektron leave open the possibility of a narrower combination further down the line, even as Strike’s independence removes one leg of the originally proposed structure. For investors and regulators tracking the growing footprint of corporate bitcoin treasuries, the reshuffle at Twenty One is a reminder that governance arrangements around these vehicles remain fluid even as their balance sheets grow.
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