New Twenty One Capital CEO outlines new priorities after $413.5M Q2 loss

The new CEO of Twenty One Capital (NYSE: XXI) Raphael Zagury has announced to shareholders that the Bitcoin treasury firm must grow beyond its balance sheet.

He made the announcement on Tuesday, even as he listed out five main objectives for the Tether-controlled firm following a $1.27 billion loss in H1 of 2026.

Bitcoin’s slump caused most of Twenty One Capital’s loss

The loss of $1.27 billion was linked to movement in the market rather than an operational failure. The major cause was the crash in the price of Bitcoin, which makes up most of the company’s portfolio.

Twenty One Capital, based in Austin, Texas, trades on the NYSE using the XXI ticker symbol. As of June 30, the company holds 43,514 BTC, which is worth ~$2.8 billion right now.

Twenty One Capital is currently the second-largest corporate Bitcoin holder. The company disclosed the purchase of 6,284 BTC in July, while Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, has sold ~7,000 BTC this year.

XXI filed its quarterly report for Q2 with the SEC on Tuesday, August 11. And its revenue is practically zero, showing the need for an operating plan more than ever.

Zagury names five priorities

Zagury intends to transform XXI into more than just a large Bitcoin holding alone because he believes the company must do more to convince traders to buy its stock.

“Twenty One owns one of the largest Bitcoin balance sheets in the public markets. That is a real advantage, but if Twenty One is going to be worth owning, it must become more than a Bitcoin treasury,” he said in his letter to shareholders.

He listed five areas of focus. 

• First, tighten governance, controls and reporting and hire the staff to run the strategy.
• Second, buy and build operating businesses.
• Third, develop new capital markets products.
• Fourth, widen the firm’s ability to do mergers and acquisitions.
• Fifth, stand up a Bitcoin-backed lending and credit arm, which Zagury said could later manage outside capital if kept conservative and low-leverage.

Zagury also committed the firm to backing Bitcoin’s open-source infrastructure and to watching transactions with Tether, its controlling shareholder, closely.

Mallers out, merger plan scaled back

Zagury took the top job after Jack Mallers stepped down, effective July 20, to return to Strike, the Bitcoin payments company he founded. Mallers helped build Twenty One and steer it to a public listing in December 2025.

His exit came with a strategy reset. Tether had proposed in April to fold Twenty One together with Strike and mining firm Elektron Energy into one listed Bitcoin business spanning treasury, payments and mining.

That three-way deal has been abandoned, with Strike dropping out. The company is now weighing a narrower two-way combination with Elektron. Zagury previously ran Elektron and has held senior roles at Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.

Why the market remains cautious

The reset lands with the stock near its lows. XXI closed at $4.58 on August 10, the SEC filing states, down from a 52-week high of $12.51 and off more than half its value this year.

Tether tightened its grip in May by buying SoftBank’s entire stake for about $711 million, removing the last outside sponsor from the board.

For shareholders, the message is that patience is now the ask. Investors should watch whether the promised operating businesses, lending arm and any Elektron deal actually materialize, and whether the governance overhaul produces the reporting discipline a company with a multibillion-dollar treasury and three employees currently lacks.

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