Earlier today, 10,500 BTC — worth over $1.1 billion — was moved from Bitfinex’s hot wallet to a new Bitcoin address. On its own, the transaction would have caught people’s attention. But when Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed that the transfer was part of the pre-funding for SoftBank’s entry into Twenty One Capital (XXI), the quiet flow of recent on-chain activity snapped into context.
This was not a one-time thing. In the last 48 hours, a bunch of high-value Bitcoin transactions — 14,000 BTC; 4,812 BTC; 7,000 BTC and another for 917 BTC — have been sent to new wallets, and they are all linked to the same project. In total, around 37,229 BTC have moved, which is just under $4 billion at today’s price.
Twenty One Capital is anything but your average fund. This Bitcoin-focused investment option first came to light in April. Its goal is to hold rather than speculate.
The structure is built to preserve capital in BTC, using that base layer to scale into the equity and debt markets. It is a playbook that is similar to how Strategy transformed, but this time it is happening before the IPO, and it has institutional backing from the start.
The fund is mostly made up of three big players: Tether, Bitfinex and SoftBank. Cantor Fitzgerald is involved too, working as an indirect anchor and reportedly supporting the capital formation side. Brandon Lutnick is leading the project. He was mentioned in some early investor materials as the son of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce.
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According to some insiders, the financial plan is simple but aggressive. Tether is committing $1.5 billion in BTC, SoftBank is in for $900 million and Bitfinex is allocating $600 million. They are expecting about $550 million more in capital, which will come from convertible debt and private placements.