Raphael Zagury has been appointed chief executive of Twenty One Capital (XXI), the Nasdaq-listed bitcoin treasury firm majority-owned by Tether, replacing Jack Mallers, who is stepping down to focus on his other venture, Strike. Tether confirmed the change on Tuesday, alongside news that a proposed three-way merger between Twenty One Capital, Strike and bitcoin miner Elektron Energy has been abandoned entirely.
XXI shares traded at $5.45 in premarket activity as of 11:30UTC, up 2.4% from Monday's close of $5.32.
Zagury previously ran Elektron Energy and sat on Twenty One Capital's board. Under the merger structure Tether proposed in April, he had been slated to become president, not chief executive, of the combined company, with Mallers remaining as its overall leader. That plan has now been dropped: Strike will remain an independent company, and Elektron is absent from Tuesday's announcement altogether. The reversal follows a rockier stretch for the company, including a board departure that briefly put it out of compliance with NYSE listing rules in June.
Stock problem merger was meant to fix
Tether framed the original April merger as a way to move Twenty One Capital "beyond treasury exposure alone" toward a platform with recurring revenue, after the stock had fallen roughly 31% since its December debut, a steeper decline than Bitcoin's own drop over the same period. Tuesday's announcement addresses that same ambition differently: rather than merging a payments business and a mining operation, the company has simply changed its chief executive. The muted premarket reaction suggests the market is not yet convinced the change resolves what the merger was meant to fix. Twenty One Capital's core position, a large, direct bitcoin holding with no other operating business, is unchanged.
New chief signals shift in emphasis
Both men used similar language to describe what should come next. Mallers said in April that he wanted the company judged "on operating income and cash flow, not just BTC per share." Zagury, in Tuesday's statement, said the company "should be measured by the cash flow it generates and the discipline with which it allocates capital." Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino credited Zagury with "a track record of building businesses with strong cash flows and disciplined execution."
Governance history the announcement omits
Zagury previously served as chief investment officer at Swan Bitcoin before becoming chief executive of Proton Management, a rival mining venture that took over a Tether-funded mining partnership after a group of Swan executives resigned in 2024. Swan alleged in a lawsuit that the departures were coordinated with Tether's help. A federal court dismissed Swan's claims against Proton on 1 Jun, but a separate arbitration demand Swan filed against Zagury personally in March, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, remains active. Zagury has denied Swan's allegations. Neither Tuesday's announcement nor Tether's statement referenced the litigation.
Sandmark has contacted Tether and Twenty One Capital for comment on the leadership change and the ongoing arbitration.
