The ambitious three‑way merger proposed by Tether in April to combine Twenty One Capital, Strike, and Elektron Energy has fallen apart, with Jack Mallers stepping down as Twenty One Capital’s CEO and Elektron chief Raphael Zagury taking over the role. The move unwinds a plan that would have folded a Bitcoin treasury, a crypto payments platform, and a Bitcoin mining giant into a single publicly listed company under Tether’s umbrella.
Strike will now remain a standalone business, while Twenty One and Elektron continue their own discussions, the companies confirmed to Bloomberg News. Mallers, who had led both Twenty One Capital and Strike since their Tether‑backed launch in April 2025, will focus exclusively on Strike, which recently secured a New York BitLicense and a money‑transmitter license from the NYDFS. Strike’s independence is final; there is no remaining plan to merge it into Twenty One.
The scuttled merger leaves only the mining leg under consideration. Elektron manages roughly 50 exahashes per second — about 5% of the Bitcoin network — at an all‑in production cost below $60,000 per coin, against a spot price near $66,400. Tether holds majority stakes in both Twenty One and Elektron.
Raphael Zagury told Bloomberg that the businesses are still searching for a path forward. “The structure evolved as Jack decided to focus full‑time on Strike,” he said, adding that Twenty One is now building the operating, governance, and capital‑markets foundation for its next phase. His mandate is to move beyond simply accumulating Bitcoin and toward generating cash flow through acquiring operating businesses, expanding capital‑markets tools, and developing Bitcoin‑backed lending.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino credited Mallers with founding the company and described Zagury as a disciplined operator suited for the next growth phase. The reshuffle fits Tether’s broader evolution beyond stablecoins, with profits channeled into AI, energy, mining, telecoms, and commodities.
Twenty One Capital, launched in December via a SPAC backed by Tether, SoftBank (later bought out), and Cantor Fitzgerald, once held over 40,000 BTC — then the third‑largest corporate treasury. Its stock has slumped over 92% from an April peak of $59.75 to $4.51. As of March 31, the company reported 43,514 BTC with a fair value of about $2.95 billion and an $847.8 million quarterly fair‑value loss, illustrating the pressure on Bitcoin treasuries amid weak prices and tight financing.
