Shares of Twenty One Capital ( XXI ) , the newest crypto-treasury company in the US, fell 20% in their trading debut following a merger with blank check firm Cantor Equity Partners.
Twenty One Capital opened trading at $10.74 on Tuesday, down from Monday’s close of $14.27 for Cantor’s merger acquisition firm.
Shares of the new Bitcoin-focused company (BTC) closed Wednesday at $11.42, down 19.97% in 24 hours.
However, it later posted a slight 2.2% gain after hours to $11.67, giving it a market capitalization of about $4 billion based on its shares outstanding.
Twenty One was one of the most anticipated crypto public debuts of the year, with the company backed by the main stablecoin issuer Tether, crypto exchange Bitfinex Japan’s SoftBank Group. Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of Bitcoin platform Strike, has also been named CEO of Twenty One.
The company owns more than 43,500 Bitcoins worth over $4 billion, boasting the third largest holding among public companies behind Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings, according to at BitcoinTreasures.NET.
Twenty One has no public plan, but “it’s not a treasury”
Twenty One has not publicly said exactly what its operating business will be or when it plans to launch it, but Mallers has told CNBC that it is “not a treasury company”.
“We don’t want the market to think about us and value us as just a state asset,” he added. “We have a lot of Bitcoin, but we’re also building a business.”
“We’re building an operational company, bringing a lot of Bitcoin products to market with the intention of having cash flow,” Mallers said, adding that he sees “a lot of opportunities in brokerage, exchanges, credit and lending.”
Mallers demurred when pressed on exactly what Twenty One is planning, saying, “We’re going to get these things out with them sooner rather than later.”
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In the US this year, there has been a flood of so-called crypto treasuries that have appeared on the market, copying the model popularized by Strategy, where they buy and hold crypto and raise money to continue buying.
Such crypto holding companies saw investor interest earlier this year when Bitcoin hit an all-time high in October, but a slide in the crypto market has since dragged down shares in companies exposed to the sector.
Mallers seems hopeful that his and Tether’s results, and his belief in Bitcoin, will support Twenty One in the meantime.
“We see Bitcoin as the forest through the trees,” he told CNBC. “It’s an opportunity that no one seems to be focused on. The story of this equity is to focus solely on Bitcoin and deliver shareholder value primarily through Bitcoin.”
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