Apr 25, 2025 04:15
Jack Mallers is the fonder of Strike, (which to me has always seemed like the all-crypto version of Cash App) and now heads a 2nd venture as he has just been named CEO of a new company called Twenty One, and hes not wasting any time setting the tone. His mission? Overtake Michael Saylor and Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) as the biggest corporate holder of bitcoin.
In a Bloomberg Technology interview, Mallers laid it out plain: Twenty One isnt trying to be a fintech, a bank, or a crypto hedge fund. Its a Bitcoin-first, Bitcoin-only company. Everything it doesfrom the products it builds to how it returns value to investorsis centered on one goal: stacking sats and scaling hard.
We want to be the best vehicle for investors to gain exposure to bitcoin in the public markets, Mallers said - making it clear they want to be seen as an official competitor to Michael Saylor and Strategy.
The idea for Twenty One came after years of deep involvement in Bitcoin infrastructureMallers has worked alongside Tether and played a major role in Bitcoin adoption efforts in El Salvador. Now hes aiming to do what no one else has done: build a public company from scratch thats Bitcoin-native from day one. No pivoting from old-school industries. No legacy baggage.
On the other side of the ring is Michael Saylor, whos basically become the poster child for corporate Bitcoin accumulation. With over 530,000 BTC in Strategys vaults, Saylors been rewriting the playbook for capital marketsraising billions via bitcoin-backed bonds and preferred stock to fuel the companys ever-growing stack.
Mallers isnt denying Saylors influencein fact, he says Saylor was part of the inspiration. But where Saylor is evolving a decades-old company into a Bitcoin vehicle, Mallers is building the future from scratch. Its new-school vs. old-school, and the battleground is Bitcoin.
Realistically, Twenty One's goal of catching up to Strategy is a long shot, at least when it comes to total Bitcoin held. The company will launch with 43,000 BTC in hand which is a massive amount in any other circumstance, except comparing it with Strategy's 530,000 BTC.
Where they can make a name for themselves is becoming the company currently accumulating the most Bitcoin, while Saylor is unlikely to be dethroned as the one who currently holds the most Bitcoin.
Is This a Good Thing?
It's easy to get caught up in the immediate effects of companies fighting over who can accumulate the most Bitcoin, as the immediate result is driving up the price. When it comes to supply and demand, whales with huge appetites obviously add a lot of momentum to the 'demand' end.
But it's also putting the power to crash the entire market in the hands of a very small group of people. Of course, Saylor and really any investor with a basic understanding of the market would never dump 530K BTC onto the market at once, that obliterates their own profits as the market would have crashed long before even half of the coins were sold.
However, even a smaller portion like 10% for example - in the case of Strategy, that's still over $3 billion in BTC flooding the market, which would probably sent Bitcoin's price down by $10,000 to $15,000. Then when you consider this may trigger another large holder to panic - it's not just about how many tokens one major holder sells, it's the total amount they sell + scare others in to selling when a sizeable red candle appears.
Then there's the obvious argument against companies trying to get as much Bitcoin as possible - remember, decentralization? It's easy to forget in a story about 2 companies who want it all.
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Author: Adam Lee
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