XXI Stock Rises After Tether Proposal To Acquire Strike, Elektron Energy – But The Buyer And Seller Share A CEO

• Jack Mallers would oversee both sides of the transaction, raising potential governance and conflict-of-interest concerns.
• No financial terms, valuation, or timeline for the proposed deal have been disclosed.
• Any deal would require shareholder approval and review by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tether (USDT) proposed Wednesday that Twenty One Capital (XXI) should acquire Strike and Elektron Energy, but the man who would be negotiating that deal on both sides is the same person.

Jack Mallers is the CEO of Twenty One Capital, the publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company that would be doing the acquiring. He is also the founder and CEO of Strike, the company being acquired. Tether, which holds a majority stake in XXI, said Mallers should lead the combined entity.

Mallers publicly backed the proposal on the same day Tether released it, calling it "a great idea," on stage at Bitcoin Conference 2026.  He added that building a Bitcoin company and not just a payments app was his founding goal. Elektron founder Raphael Zagury was proposed as President of the combined entity under the plan.

No terms were disclosed. No timeline was given. The proposal made no mention of an independent committee to represent XXI's minority shareholders in negotiations.

Why Is XXI Stock Rising?

XXI’s stock rose over 4% in midday trade on Thursday. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the company rose to ‘extremely bullish’ from ‘bullish’ over the past day and chatter increased to ‘high’ from ‘normal’ levels. 

Some retail traders on the platform were surprised that XXI’s stock didn’t rise higher after the news.

https://www.stocktwits.com/nottoday800/message/651833398

https://www.stocktwits.com/Becoolbrodude/message/651866389

Retail sentiment around Tether’s stablecoin USDT remained in the ‘bullish’ zone, accompanied by ‘low’ levels of chatter.

The Three-Way Merger With XXI, Strike, Elektron

Twenty One Capital is a Bitcoin treasury company that went public in December via a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners. It holds over 43,500 Bitcoin, acquired at a blended average cost of approximately $87,280 per coin, making it the third-largest corporate Bitcoin treasury in the world. 

Meanwhile, Strike is a Bitcoin financial services platform and Elektron Energy is a private Bitcoin mining operator. Any definitive deal would require a shareholder vote, followed by standard review by the Securities And Exchange Commission (SEC) of the transaction documents. 

Together, the three businesses would give the combined company Bitcoin treasury holdings, a revenue-generating payments and lending operation, and direct exposure to Bitcoin mining economics.

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