(Reuters) -A consortium including Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group on Wednesday joined hands with a blank-check firm backed by boutique bank Cantor Fitzgerald to launch a bitcoin investment vehicle, Twenty One Capital.
The deal with blank-check vehicle Cantor Equity Partners values the crypto venture at $3.6 billion, Twenty One said.
The move underscores the growing global demand for bitcoin and increasing institutional adoption as the once-nascent asset class embeds itself into the mainstream.
Twenty One will offer investors access to an investment vehicle for exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency and expects to launch with more than 42,000 bitcoins.
That would make Twenty One the third-largest bitcoin treasury in the world, it said.
Michael Saylor’s Strategy is the biggest corporate holder of the digital asset. The company held 538,200 bitcoins as of April 20.
“We’re not here to beat the market, we’re here to build a new one. A public stock, built by Bitcoiners, for Bitcoiners,” said Twenty One Co-Founder and CEO Jack Mallers.
Twenty One will be majority owned by stablecoin issuer Tether and cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. SoftBank will have a minority ownership.
Tether, creator of the world’s largest stablecoin, and Cantor Fitzgerald have long-standing ties developed when U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was the brokerage’s boss.
Cantor holds much of the dollar-denominated reserves Tether says it has for every token it creates for its stablecoin.
Of the U.S. Treasury bills Tether holds, 99% are held with Cantor, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino told Reuters in an interview last month.
“Bitcoin is one of the only truly decentralized, immutable, and censorship-resistant asset, and its role as the foundation of a new financial system is inevitable,” said Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
The companies will raise $585 million in additional capital from investors through a combination of convertible bonds and equity financing.
The proceeds will be used to purchase bitcoin and for other purposes.
Twenty One will seek to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol “XXI” after the deal closes.
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru and Tommy Reggiori Wilkes in London; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Shreya Biswas)
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