Tether Announces Acquisition of SoftBank's Entire Stake in Twenty One

Stablecoin issuer Tether announced on Wednesday that it has acquired SoftBank Group's entire stake in Twenty One Capital, further consolidating its control over the digital asset treasury company. The transaction amount was not disclosed, but Bloomberg-compiled data shows that SoftBank previously held about 26% of Twenty One's publicly traded shares, valued at approximately $679 million.

Affected by this news, Twenty One Capital's stock price rose by 6% in pre-market trading on Wednesday, reaching $8.08.

Twenty One was co-founded by Tether, SoftBank, and Cantor Fitzgerald-related parties in April 2025, holding approximately 42,000 Bitcoin at inception, valued at about $3.9 billion. Before the acquisition, Tether already held about 45% of the shares in the company. After the transaction is completed, SoftBank representatives have exited the board of directors in accordance with the shareholders' agreement.

This acquisition comes at a time when the concept of a Bitcoin treasury company has noticeably cooled down. Twenty One initially followed the model of MicroStrategy (a company owned by Michael Saylor), planning to continuously accumulate Bitcoin through a public company platform. However, as the price of Bitcoin retreats, similar company stock prices have generally回调 significantly.

Tether Chief Executive Officer Paolo Ardoino said that SoftBank's early participation brought significant institutional credibility, resource networks, and governance norms to Twenty One. After SoftBank's exit, Tether's strategic direction is clearer: to build a public company centered around Bitcoin based on Twenty One. A month prior, Tether had proposed a merger of Twenty One with the cryptocurrency payment platform Strike and Bitcoin mining company Elektron Energy.