Bitcoin Treasury Firm Backed by Tether, SoftBank Plunges on First Day of Trading — WSJ
By Vicky Ge HuangTwenty One Capital, a bitcoin treasury company backed by stablecoin giant Tether and Japan's SoftBank Group, plunged on its first day of trading.The stock, which trades under the ticker XXI, was down 19% Tuesday afternoon.The company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange after completing a merger with Cantor Equity Partners, a special-purpose acquisition company led by Brandon Lutnick, chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald and son of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.Twenty One holds 43,514 bitcoin, worth about $4 billion based on current prices. That makes it the third-largest corporate holder of bitcoin behind Michael Saylor's Strategy and bitcoin miner MARA Holdings, according to bitcointreasuries.net.Jack Mallers, chief executive of Twenty One, said the company aims to build a profitable bitcoin financial services business while maintaining a large bitcoin treasury, a model that differs from that of other bitcoin treasury companies and will take time for the market to fully appreciate."I think we're different," Mallers said after trading started Tuesday. "And I think it's going to take the market a second to digest that and understand that they've never seen anything like us."He said the company will roll out some products soon and is exploring opportunities in the credit and lending space.Crypto treasury stocks have experienced a broad downturn after a sharp pullback in token prices. Bitcoin was trading around $94,000 Tuesday afternoon, down about 25% from an early-October peak above $126,000.This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).