Twenty One Capital Outlines Bitcoin Treasury Strategy as Tether Takes Full Control

Twenty One Capital, the bitcoin treasury company backed by Tether International, outlined its operating strategy on May 20, as Tether International separately acquired SoftBank Group‘s equity stake in the venture, consolidating its position as controlling shareholder. The company said its core mission is to maximize bitcoin holdings per share over time.

The move signals one of the most direct attempts yet by a major stablecoin issuer to build a publicly listed bitcoin accumulation vehicle.

What Twenty One Capital Is Planning

Twenty One Capital published its operating plans through a BusinessWire release on May 20. The company said it intends to grow Bitcoin (BTC) holdings through capital markets activity, debt issuance, and operating cash flows.

It frames bitcoin per share as its primary performance metric, borrowing the playbook pioneered by MicroStrategy (MSTR) after that company began systematic bitcoin accumulation in August 2020.

Tether International’s acquisition of SoftBank’s stake was announced in the same disclosure. The release did not specify the price paid for the stake or the total size of SoftBank’s original position in XXI, the company’s ticker designation.

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Background

Twenty One Capital was formed as a joint venture involving Tether International, SoftBank, and Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street brokerage firm whose chair, Howard Lutnick, joined the Trump administration as Commerce Secretary in early 2025.

The structure positioned Cantor as the vehicle for taking the company public, with SoftBank and Tether as the principal capital contributors. With SoftBank now exiting its equity position, Tether International becomes the dominant shareholder, giving the stablecoin issuer direct control over a publicly traded bitcoin treasury vehicle.

Tether is the issuer of Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, with a circulating supply above $140 billion as of May 2026.

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What to Watch

The disclosure raises two near-term questions. First, how quickly Twenty One Capital will begin deploying capital into bitcoin through public markets, and at what cadence.

Second, whether Tether’s consolidated ownership will draw regulatory scrutiny, given that Cantor Fitzgerald’s connection to a senior Trump administration official has already attracted attention from financial observers. The company has not disclosed its current bitcoin holdings or a target accumulation schedule.

Any follow-on capital raise or debt issuance tied to the bitcoin-per-share strategy will be a key indicator of execution pace.

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