The consortium, led by Brandon Rutnick’s Canter Equity Partner, is preparing one of the most ambitious treasury style bets on Bitcoin as microStrategy first transformed its balance sheet into a proxy for the cryptocurrency market. According to a report by the Financial Times, the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), backed by the brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald, has seeded a new entity called 21 Capital, combined with Bitcoin contributions from SoftBank, Tether and Bitfinex.
Kanter, Softbank and Tether make big bets on Bitcoin
The deal marks the dramatic entrance to Brandon Rutnick, newly set up as a chair for Canter Fitzgerald after his father, Howard Lutnick, joined the Trump administration, which is at the heart of the expected post-election revival in US digital asset investment. The three who described the plan told FT they were trying to replicate the “success of MicroStrategy, a one-off software company that surged after 21 capital pivoted into cryptocurrency investments.”
Cantor Equity Partners raised $200 million at its January IPO. That cash, along with its partner Bitcoin, supplies 21 core Treasury Ministry of Capital. The breakdowns cited in the report are allotting $1.5 billion in Bitcoin from Tether, $900 million from SoftBank and $600 million from Bitfinex. Sources say an additional $350 million convertible bonds and $200 million private equity placements have been arranged to “purchase additional Bitcoin.”
Upon completion, the digital asset contribution will be converted to 21 capital stocks at $10 per share, valued the transferred Bitcoin at $85,000 per coin. The plans are still fluid. The FT warns that the deal is likely to be announced in the coming weeks, but it still fails to materialize and the numbers may change.”
MicroStrategy’s multi-year Bitcoin accumulation has resulted in a market capitalization of $91 billion, creating a model that (equities and low-coupled debt fund further purchases). Lutnick’s proposed vehicle was the first SPAC explicitly designed to mimic that template on a massive scale, and it arrives as the Trump administration shows a “more regulating attitude towards cryptocurrency trading.”
Cantor Fitzgerald already benefits from the new policy environment and advises on a $775 million investment in Tether’s conservative video sharing platform Rumble. The brokerage sponsors two additional Lutnick-led SPACs looking for targets.
As BTC Inc. CEO David Bailey observed, SoftBank’s existence of “$180 billion in assets, $32 billion in cash, and a large portfolio,” gained immediate global heft for the proposed vehicle. Bailey told X’s followers, “SoftBank officially entered the Bitcoin market with its first $900 million acquisition… Masayoshi Son!” Steven Lubka, who runs Swan Private Wealth, posted something simple as “Cantor, SoftBank and Tether launch BTC acquisition vehicles.”
Market Observers quickly link the emergence of the consortium with Bitcoin’s recent price action. “The announcement explains why Bitcoin rose 12% last week,” wrote Tuur Demeester, host of the B Reel Podcast and director of the Texas Bitcoin Foundation.
Jeff Park, head of Bitwise’s Alpha Strategy, frames the collaboration in geopolitical terms and calls it the “ultimate “exorbitant privilege” joint venture.
At the time of pressing, BTC traded for $93,391.
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