BSTR Vote Delay Stalls Adam Back’s Push to Challenge Bitcoin Treasury Leaders

Cantor Equity Partners I has postponed its shareholder vote on a merger with Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company to July 2. The deal would list Adam Back’s firm, known as BSTR, on Nasdaq with 30,021 Bitcoin (BTC).

The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), sponsored by a Cantor Fitzgerald affiliate, tied the delay to previously disclosed private placements. Shareholders were first due to vote on June 26.

BSTR Vote Slips as Treasury Stocks Fall

The companies first agreed to the merger in July 2025 and once aimed to close by late 2025. The postponement now arrives while digital asset treasury (DAT) companies absorb falling valuations.

Many trade near or below the value of the Bitcoin they hold, making fresh share sales dilutive. The strain is visible in Bitcoin’s recent price action.

Even Strategy (MSTR), the firm Michael Saylor turned into the template for corporate Bitcoin treasuries, has felt the squeeze. It remains the largest holder with 847,363 BTC. Yet its shares fell below $100 this week, the first time since March 2024.

Strategy has even slowed its buying, adding just 520 BTC recently while building a $1.4 billion cash reserve.

The Math Behind a Second-Place Bid

BSTR would arrive as the fifth-largest public Bitcoin treasury, about 13,000 coins shy of second place. Founders contribute 25,000 coins. Another 5,021 come from an in-kind raise paid in Bitcoin, which BSTR bills as a US SPAC first.

The listing would be Cantor Fitzgerald’s second Bitcoin treasury built through a SPAC. Its first, Cantor Equity Partners, created Twenty One Capital, a Tether-backed holder of 43,514 BTC. That company is one of the very treasuries BSTR now hopes to pass. Back has set a top-three treasury as his goal, naming it a target.

Back, who created Hashcash and co-founded Blockstream, is raising up to $1.5 billion to buy more Bitcoin. He recently denied a disputed Satoshi report from The New York Times. JAN3 chief executive Samson Mow estimated the full sum could add about 23,500 coins.

A full deployment would lift BSTR to roughly 53,500 BTC. That total would pass Metaplanet’s 40,177 BTC and Twenty One’s 43,514 BTC for second place, behind only Strategy. Mow says arriving late hands BSTR the lowest cost basis among large holders.

The outcome hinges on the July 2 vote and the level of redemptions before the June 30 deadline. Heavy redemptions would cut the cash BSTR can spend on Bitcoin, narrowing its path to the top.