Financial Times reports Cantor Fitzgerald, Softbank and Tether are putting the finishing touches on a $3 billion bitcoin acquisition vehicle aimed at harnessing the cryptocurrency’s renewed vitality under the Trump administration.
FT Sources Detail Trio’s Push to Corner Bitcoin
Spearheaded by Brandon Lutnick—son of U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick—the project seeks to echo Strategy’s (formerly Microstrategy) playbook by accumulating a sizeable bitcoin (BTC) cache.
Reporters Antoine Gara and Oliver Barnes state that the consortium’s special-purpose acquisition company, Cantor Equity Partners, plans to assemble $3 billion in bitcoin from Tether ($1.5 billion), Softbank ($900 million) and Bitfinex ($600 million), according to their sources.
Those proceeds will bankroll a nascent firm dubbed 21 Capital, which intends to list at $10 a share, implying a bitcoin valuation near $85,000 each. FT further notes the SPAC has already raised $200 million and will issue a $350 million convertible bond plus a $200 million private placement to procure more BTC.
Participants’ bitcoin holdings will convert into 21 Capital equity, reflecting a wager on long-term crypto appreciation. Bitcoin climbed to almost $94,000 on Tuesday, charting a course that veered sharply away from equities this week. Sources familiar with the negotiations told Gara and Barnes the agreement, though expected soon, could still unravel.
The reporters add in the report that Cantor declined to comment, while Softbank and Tether offered no response. Tether, which issues the world’s largest dollar-linked token USDT, now controls 92,646 BTC after adding 8,888 bitcoin in Q1.
Source: Bitcoin
