Tether Accused of Secretly Controlling Publicly Traded Bitcoin Treasury Company

Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten has accused Tether of exerting control over Twenty One Capital, a publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company. According to Klippsten, Tether's majority shareholder, Tether Investments, effectively controls Twenty One through its ownership and financial backing.

Klippsten alleged that Tether uses Twenty One to advance its interests in the United States, specifically to 'line pockets where needed for political reasons.' However, he did not provide evidence to support this claim, and Tether had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.

Twenty One trades on the New York Stock Exchange and was created through a special purpose acquisition company merger with Cantor Equity Partners last year. It began operations with approximately $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet, making it one of the largest publicly traded corporate holders of cryptocurrency at launch.

Twenty One's strategy extends beyond passively holding Bitcoin, and the company had proposed a two-stage transaction in April that would have combined it with Strike and then merged the enlarged company with Elektron Energy. However, Strike later withdrew from the potential transaction.