Mallers Quits Twenty One Capital as Tether Merger Collapses
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- Jack Mallers stepped down as CEO of Twenty One Capital on July 21, 2026, announcing his return to Bitcoin payments firm Strike—which will remain an independent, standalone company—and posting on X that "My life's work remains Bitcoin. My Bitcoin company is Strike."
- Tether's plan to merge Twenty One Capital, Strike, and Elektron Energy into a single publicly traded Bitcoin giant has been abandoned, per Bloomberg, leaving Twenty One and Elektron in early talks about a narrower two-way deal.
- XXI shares fell nearly 18% on Tuesday, extending a slide from a 52-week high of $31.51 to a low of $4.81—a decline of more than 80%.
- Twenty One Capital still holds 43,514 BTC worth more than $4 billion at current prices, ranking second among public companies for Bitcoin holdings behind Michael Saylor's Strategy.
- Raphael Zagury—Elektron Energy's founder and a former Goldman Sachs VP and Deutsche Bank managing director—has been named Twenty One's new CEO, promising a shift from "aggressive Bitcoin accumulation" to "institutional discipline" focused on cash flow and capital allocation.
- SoftBank originally paid $999.3 million for its roughly 25% stake in Twenty One before Tether bought them out in May 2026 to consolidate control.
Why it matters: Twenty One's swap from Bitcoin evangelist Mallers to institutional-finance veteran Zagury puts the world's second-largest public Bitcoin treasury (43,514 BTC, $4B+) under cash-flow-focused management—while the merger's collapse leaves XXI shareholders holding a stock that's lost more than 80% from $31.51 to $4.81 and counting.
