Latest news with #TwentyOne
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bitcoin Treasury Firm Twenty One Capital Brings Total Fundraise to $685M
Bitcoin BTC treasury firm Twenty One has raised an additional $100 million through convertible senior secured notes, pushing its total capital raised to $685 million as it advances toward a planned merger with Nasdaq-listed Cantor Equity Partners (CEP), a Thursday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows. The fresh financing comes from existing investors and sponsors who exercised their option to buy more of the notes, originally granted during the April fundraising round, the regulatory filing said. The new notes carry a 1% coupon and are due in 2030. The $100 million boost adds to the $385 million initially committed, bringing the total note financing to $485 million. That's on top of $200 million in private investment in public equity (PIPE) disclosed last month. CEP is lower by 1.5% in morning U.S. trade as bitcoin slips below $107,000. Twenty One is the latest example of firms with a crypto treasury strategy, following Michael Saylor's Startegy (MSTR). The firm is being launched by Brandon Lutnick—the son of U.S. Commerce Secretary and former Cantor Fitzgerald chairman Howard Lutnick—via a a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) structure using Cantor Equity Partners. Owners include iFinex—the parent company of Bitfinex—and Tether, the issuer of the $150 billion USDT. The company will be led by Strike CEO Jack Mallers. The company recently disclosed a $458 million BTC acquisition earlier this month. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hong Kong Firm Plots U.S. Crypto Service; Cantor Equity Partners Adds Funds For Bitcoin Venture
Hong Kong-based Futu cleared Q1 views. Meanwhile, its subsidiary Moomoo will expand crypto services to the U.S. And Cantor Equity raised funds for its Twenty One bitcoin venture.
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
People are just realizing Jeopardy! nearly had a VERY different name
Game show fans are only just discovering that America's beloved quiz program Jeopardy! was nearly called something completely different. Television legend Merv Griffin, the creator of the long-running show, originally planned to call his creation 'What's the Question?' before a stroke of genius changed everything. Most fans have no idea about the fascinating story behind how it got its iconic name. While brainstorming ideas with his wife Julann back in 1963, Griffin was deeply concerned about the quiz show scandals that had been popular on television in the previous decade. In the 1950s, popular programs like 'Twenty-One' and 'The $64,000 Question' had been embroiled in controversial cheating scandals when producers were caught secretly giving answers to favored contestants. This left viewers feeling betrayed and suspicious of quiz shows. As a result, Julann made an offhand remark that would change television history forever. She suggested a show where contestants would be given the answers first. This was the exact opposite approach of other quiz shows at the time, Griffin revealed in the foreword to 1990's 'The Jeopardy! Book.' 'She was kidding, but the thought struck me between the eyes,' he said. The early concept was still under the title 'What's the Question?' It featured an ambitious 10-by-10 game board with 100 questions organized into 10 categories. While NBC executives loved the initial run-through, they worried the massive board wouldn't fit properly on television screens. But Griffin responded by dividing the categories into shorter rounds of play - but the show's iconic name was still missing. The breakthrough came during a meeting with NBC producer Ed Vane, who reviewed his notes with Griffin and made a comment that would inadvertently give birth to television history. Vane 'told me that he liked the premise but that it lacked enough 'jeopardies,'' Griffin shared in his 2007 memoir, 'Merv: Making the Good Life Last,' as reported by the New York Post. This led Griffin to decide to implement the crucial component of the game which involves contestants actually losing money if they buzzed in with incorrect responses. Griffin later admitted that Vane had 'inadvertently given me the perfect name for the show'. Jeopardy! finally made its television debut on March 30, 1964, with original host Fleming at the helm. The beloved quiz show has seen five official hosts throughout its impressive 39-season run. But it's best known for its host Alex Trebek, who led the show for an incredible 36 years from 1984 until his death from pancreatic cancer in November 2020. The show is now famously hosted by Ken Jennings, who took over full-time hosting duties after initially sharing the role with 'The Big Bang Theory' star Mayim Bialik.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wall Street's New Bitcoin Monster: Cantor's $4B Bet Could Dethrone Michael Saylor
Cantor Fitzgerald is going all in on Bitcoin (BTC-USD). Backed by stablecoin giant Tether Holdings SA and SoftBank Group, the firm just launched Twenty One Capital a bold crypto venture designed to rival Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) (formerly MicroStrategy). It's not tiptoeing into the market either. The company is starting with a massive $4 billion in Bitcoin on its balance sheet, instantly making it the third-largest corporate Bitcoin treasury in the world. But unlike Strategy's early lone-wolf play, Twenty One is entering with institutional firepower and a business model that goes beyond buying and holding. And that model? It's ambitious. The company's prospectus outlines plans for native lending models, capital market instruments, and future innovations that will replace legacy financial tools with Bitcoin-aligned alternatives, along with Bitcoin-focused content and media. In short, Twenty One wants to be more than just another Bitcoin proxy. As Mark Palmer, senior analyst at Benchmark, put it: It does have the backing of some large and influential players within the crypto space, which is not only going to enable the company to tap into those firms' resources, but also to make a much bigger splash in the market than it would have otherwise. Cantor's existing connections including managing Tether's reserves and holding its convertible bond only add to its firepower. Still, the race won't be easy. Strategy remains the king of Bitcoin treasuries, holding roughly $55 billion and planning to raise another $84 billion through equity and debt to buy more. Michael Saylor isn't worried though. It's auspicious, he said at a recent New York conference. It's good for the entire industry because it's generating positive awareness of the opportunity and it's very legitimizing to see these companies making big investments. I hope there are 10 more. But the market may be cooling on copycats. Wilfred Daye, CSO of Mercurity Fintech, warns: The market can become more sensitized to MicroStrategy's strategy shareholders get tired, pointing to GameStop's stock plunge after it announced plans to take on debt to buy Bitcoin. Twenty One has capital, partners, and momentum. Now it just needs to prove it's not another echo of a trade that's already been priced in. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SoftBank, Tether, Cantor Bring Financial Muscle in Crypto Gambit
(Bloomberg) -- When Michael Saylor transformed his long-fading software firm into a Bitcoin juggernaut in 2020, he pulled off one of the most successful corporate pivots in recent memory by weaponizing the sheer power of capital markets. The Battle Over the Fate of Detroit's Renaissance Center Vail to Borrow Muni Debt to Ease Ski Resort Town Housing Crunch Is Trump's Plan to Reopen the Notorious Alcatraz Prison Realistic? Iceland Plans for a More Volcanic Future Now, Cantor Fitzgerald — backed by institutional muscle — is aiming to replicate Saylor's success with even bigger ambitions. Along with stablecoin heavyweight Tether Holdings SA and SoftBank Group, the new digital-asset venture, Twenty One Capital, is positioning itself as a next-generation Bitcoin 'pure play.' Like the former MicroStrategy, now renamed Strategy, Twenty One will raise capital to amass the digital token and invest in related products and infrastructure. Yet unlike Strategy, it's also launching with deep-pocketed partners and a bigger Bitcoin holding from the get-go. Given the heft of its backers, the new Cantor-linked entity stands out from previous imitators, which has included obscure penny stocks. If Strategy is a high-volatility stock with a Bitcoin treasury, Twenty One is pitching itself as a full-on operating company – with revenue-generating plans, product ideas revolving around Bitcoin, and more. 'Twenty One could be a significant competitor to Strategy given the balance-sheet power that it is starting off with and its backers,' said Strahinja Savic, head of data and analytics at FRNT Financial. 'It's the only entity of its type that was purposefully created to acquire Bitcoin by leveraging the capital markets available to publicly traded corporations.' Unlike Strategy, which pursued its Bitcoin ambitions solo as many on Wall Street looked askance, Twenty One — which came public via a SPAC — is launching with about $4 billion worth of Bitcoin, making it the third-largest Bitcoin treasury. The basis for many of the proposed endeavors are already in place. Cantor, the financial-services firm previously led by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, recently kicked off its Bitcoin financing business. Cantor helps manage Tether's reserves and holds a convertible bond issued by the stablecoin operator. 'It does have the backing of some large and influential players within the crypto space, which is not only going to enable the company to tap into those firms' resources, but also to make a much bigger splash in the market than it would have otherwise,' Mark Palmer, senior fintech and digital assets analyst at Benchmark, said of Twenty One. Success isn't guaranteed. Twenty One, under the leadership of Jack Mallers, will have to convince market participants that it's far more than just another crypto play in order to raise capital at competitive prices. Meanwhile, life is getting tougher for crypto issuers seeking financing in the world of convertible debt. Representatives for Twenty One did not respond to requests for comment. Saylor, for one, sees the new rival as a validation of his years-long mission to convince boardrooms across America to maximize digital assets on their balance sheets. 'It's auspicious,' Saylor said on the sidelines of a conference in New York in April following Twenty One's announcement. 'It's good for the entire industry because it's generating positive awareness of the opportunity — and it's very legitimizing to see these companies making big investments. I hope there are 10 more.' In fact, the number of firms emulating Saylor has ballooned, with at least 30 publicly listed companies in the US. Bernstein analysts project that Bitcoin could see $330 billion in inflows via corporate treasuries before 2030. A subsidiary of Strive Enterprises Inc. is one of the latest firms to join the trend. Strategy holds roughly $55 billion of Bitcoin — by far the most of any of its copycats — and has laid out plans to raise $84 billion to buy more by selling a combination of shares and fixed-income instruments. For Strategy, this self-reinforcing cycle of leverage and momentum has been a big success. The company trades at a market capitalization that far exceeds the value of its underlying Bitcoin. That premium has fueled a 36% rally for the stock this year, versus the coin's 6% gain. Last year, it bested the cryptocurrency by 238 percentage points. Strategy has long served as a proxy for Bitcoin exposure, especially in the years prior to 2024, when Bitcoin ETFs first launched in the US. Yet even as a new generation of relatively cheap ETFs offer to amp up exposures to Bitcoin, Strategy still stands out as the ultimate way to go all-in on the original cryptocurrency, given the firm's massive holdings and use of leverage. 'It's attractive if you trade volatility,' said Wilfred Daye at Samara Alpha Management, which runs its own crypto hedge funds. 'It's a story that shareholders want to hear.' Twenty One's prospectus lists a number of ambitions, among them 'native lending models, capital market instruments, and future innovations that will replace legacy financial tools with Bitcoin-aligned alternatives,' alongside productions of 'Bitcoin-focused content and media.' 'They have an actual business plan around Bitcoin that's not just a treasury strategy,' Gustavo Gala, an analyst at Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. Inc., said of Twenty One. Yet it's not difficult to see how this crypto-motion machine could lose its luster in the event of a market downturn. Investors could reach a point of exhaustion, for instance. Samara's Daye points to some recent announcements of Strategy copycat plans that weren't welcomed by the market — shares of GameStop Corp. initially tanked after it said last month that it would load up on debt to buy Bitcoin. 'The market can become more sensitized to MicroStrategy's strategy — shareholders get tired,' Daye, who is also the chief strategy officer of Mercurity Fintech, said. 'So you do see a sort of polarization already.' --With assistance from Isabelle Lee, Muyao Shen and Yiqin Shen. US Border Towns Are Being Ravaged by Canada's Furious Boycott Pre-Tariff Car Buying Frenzy Leaves Americans With a Big Debt Problem Made-in-USA Wheelbarrows Promoted by Trump Are Now Made in China Inside the Dizzying Chaos of Running a Freight Business Under Trump Why Juggling IVF With Work Can Be a Career Killer ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. 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