Tether Buys SoftBank's 26% XXI Stake, VerifiedX Launches Native BTC on Base

CoinOtagMay 204 min readSingle source

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5-point summary · 1 min

Bitcoin News Tether has deepened its grip on one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin holders by acquiring SoftBank Group's roughly 26% stake in Twenty One Capital.
SoftBank's representatives will step down from the board, consolidating governance under Tether and granting it decisive influence over Twenty One Capital's long-term direction.
XXI shares climbed roughly 4% on Wednesday morning, partially repairing damage from a 37% drawdown since the stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in December following the business combination that created the company.
The firm's Bitcoin treasury is currently valued near $3.34 billion, anchoring enterprise value tightly to spot price action.
Bitcoin is trading near $77,505 with a modest 0.85% daily gain, holding a sideways range as bulls and bears trade blows.

$3.34 billion$5 billion$43 billion$77,505$76,817,$75,080

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Bitcoin News Tether has deepened its grip on one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin holders by acquiring SoftBank Group's roughly 26% stake in Twenty One Capital. The stablecoin issuer disclosed the move on Wednesday without naming a price, ending the Japanese conglomerate's role as an early backer of the firm Cantor Fitzgerald helped launch in 2025 under chief executive Jack Mallers. SoftBank's representatives will step down from the board, consolidating governance under Tether and granting it decisive influence over Twenty One Capital's long-term direction. The transaction lands at a delicate moment for listed Bitcoin treasuries, where price weakness compresses net asset value and complicates equity raises without dilution. Twenty One Capital used the same news cycle to lay out a wider mandate, signaling it will evolve from a pure Bitcoin treasury vehicle into a full-stack Bitcoin financial services platform. Management framed the next phase around lending against Bitcoin collateral, integrated mining operations and capital markets activities, aiming to actively monetize its balance sheet rather than simply hold it. That repositioning mirrors a broader push across listed Bitcoin proxies to build durable revenue lines as raw treasury arbitrage narrows. With Tether's payments rails, dollar-backed liquidity and global reach now firmly in the cap table, XXI gains an unusually deep counterparty for the lending and market-making ambitions it has just announced. Markets received the ownership shake-up with cautious approval. XXI shares climbed roughly 4% on Wednesday morning, partially repairing damage from a 37% drawdown since the stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in December following the business combination that created the company. The firm's Bitcoin treasury is currently valued near $3.34 billion, anchoring enterprise value tightly to spot price action. As the leading Bitcoin proxy under fresh control, XXI now faces the dual test of executing its services pivot while navigating a sideways tape that has compressed mNAV multiples across the publicly listed treasury cohort. A separate institutional push surfaced on Coinbase's Base network, where the VerifiedX foundation went live with vBTC.b, a bitcoin asset designed for redemption directly into native BTC rather than relying on a synthetic wrapper or trusted federation. The launch arrives with a Halborn full-stack audit and an immediate listing on Fireblocks with self-custody enabled, two markers institutional desks typically require before allocating. With Bitcoin still commanding only around $5 billion of total value locked across DeFi versus more than $43 billion on Ethereum, the team is positioning vBTC.b as a credible route to close that capital gap on a major EVM layer. The Fireblocks integration is the piece regulated custodians have been waiting on. Treasury teams, asset managers and crypto-native funds can now hold and move vBTC.b alongside their other digital assets under existing policy frameworks, then route it into Base-based blockchain applications without surrendering custody. Use cases highlighted include programmable settlement, collateralized borrowing, structured yield strategies and emerging AI-agent commerce flows, all settled on a chain whose growth has outpaced peer Layer-2s this cycle. For desks reluctant to touch wrapped Bitcoin formats burdened with bridge or federation risk, the native redemption guarantee is the differentiator the launch is leaning on most heavily. Underpinning the architecture is a FROST multi-party computation network handling threshold signatures across an open node set, which the team argues sets a higher decentralization bar than competing wrapped formats. Combined with native zero-knowledge proofs on the VerifiedX chain, users moving BTC in and out of the system gain a meaningful privacy buffer against onchain analytics and front-running bots that routinely target large flows. The design choice signals a deliberate departure from custodial bridges, aligning with self-custody narratives reinforced by recent cold wallet migration trends. Whether organic Bitcoin demand follows the technology will ultimately determine how the launch is judged. Bitcoin is trading near $77,505 with a modest 0.85% daily gain, holding a sideways range as bulls and bears trade blows. The first line of defense sits at $76,817, followed by deeper supports at $75,080 and $72,673; a clean break below the latter would invalidate the consolidation thesis and expose lower bands. Resistance starts at $78,595, with $80,475 and the $82,850 ceiling as upside hurdles. RSI at 48 reflects neutral momentum, while a bearish MACD signal warns rallies remain corrective until reclaimed. A close above $80,475 would shift bias decisively bullish; failure to defend $75K reopens downside risk to the broader bull market structure.

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Bitcoin stabilizes near $63,000, but reclaiming $64,000 is the real test Bitcoin is stabilizing near $63,100 after buyers defended the lower part of its recent range. That is constructive, but it is not yet a confirmed recovery. BTC must first overcome resistance near $63,175-$63,270, while reclaiming and holding $64,000-$64,095 remains the more important test. Key takeaways for Bitcoin traders and investors Current position: BTC is holding above the previous month’s lower value boundary near $62,380. Immediate resistance: Buyers need to clear $63,130-$63,175, followed by $63,247-$63,270. Main recovery test: A sustained reclaim of $64,000-$64,095 would carry much more weight than a temporary bounce near $63,000. Major support: The broader $62,380-$62,535 region remains the most important defended zone. Bullish confirmation: Repeated closes, consolidation or a successful retest above $64,095 would show that Bitcoin is beginning to establish higher accepted value. Data note: The latest daily, four-hour and one-hour candles were incomplete when this analysis was prepared. Exchange-specific Bitcoin prices may also differ slightly. I'm also closely monitoring the digital asset space after , putting immediate pressure on lower order-flow shelves as bulls fight to defend structural trendlines. Regulatory headwinds also resurfaced as the , injecting fresh institutional hesitation into active trading books. Meanwhile, broader risk sentiment showed divergence across asset classes as , underscoring rotational breadth away from mega-cap tech into small-cap momentum. Macro headwinds and geopolitical posturing remain front and center following headline chatter that , all while monetary policy uncertainty lingers after amidst baseline model variances. Why Bitcoin’s stabilization is constructive but incomplete Bitcoin recently fell to approximately $62,535, where the decline attracted meaningful buying. Price subsequently recovered toward $63,100, strengthening the case that buyers are willing to defend the lower part of the previous month’s trading range. What stands out to me, however, is how little upward progress followed that buying. Several periods showed positive buying pressure, but BTC remained concentrated around $63,050 and repeatedly struggled to extend beyond $63,150-$63,175. In simple terms, buyers have shown that they can slow the decline, but they have not yet shown that they can move Bitcoin into a clearly higher trading range. This is the difference between stabilization and recovery: Stabilization means sellers are no longer pushing price lower with the same ease. Recovery means buyers are lifting price, holding above resistance and shifting the market’s most active trading area higher. Bitcoin has shown the first condition. The second still needs confirmation. Why $62,380 and $64,095 matter The previous month’s value area provides a useful map of where most Bitcoin trading took place: Value Area Low near $62,380: The lower boundary of the previous month’s heavily traded range. Point of Control near $64,095: The price that attracted the most trading activity during the month. Value Area High near $65,050: The upper boundary of the previous month’s accepted range. BTC is currently about $720 above the monthly Value Area Low, but almost $1,000 below the monthly Point of Control. Holding above $62,380 tells us that demand inside the previous month’s range has not completely failed. Remaining below $64,095 tells us that buyers have not regained control of the broader value structure. This is also why $64,095 may be more important than $64,000 itself. The round number attracts attention, but $64,095 represents the previous month’s busiest price area. A brief move above $64,000 could still become another failed breakout. Holding above $64,095 would provide stronger evidence that the market is accepting higher prices again. As discussed in our previous analysis, Bitcoin’s created technical repair work for buyers. That repair is not complete simply because BTC has bounced from $62,535. Bitcoin support and resistance levels to watch What would strengthen the bullish Bitcoin scenario? Swing traders should have 3 key price levels: The Value Area Low (VAL), Point of Control (POC) and Value Area High (VAH) of the previous month. Together, these levels map the previous month’s main area of accepted trading: the VAL marks its lower boundary, the VAH its upper boundary, and the POC the price where the most volume traded. Traders watch them because holding inside the area suggests continued acceptance, while a sustained break outside it may signal that the market is searching for a new value zone. The first constructive step would be sustained trade above $63,175. Buyers would then need to clear and hold above $63,247-$63,270. That would improve the probability of a move toward $63,350 and, eventually, the much larger $64,000-$64,095 test. A more convincing recovery would include: Bitcoin reclaiming $64,000. Price moving above the monthly point of control near $64,095. A pullback successfully defending the reclaimed area. Trading activity beginning to concentrate above $64,095 rather than immediately slipping back below it. If that sequence develops, approximately $65,050 becomes the next major value-area objective. What this means: Acceptance is more than touching a level. It means price spends time above it, survives pullbacks and begins treating the higher area as support. What would weaken the stabilization attempt? Failure to hold $62,920-$62,800 would weaken the current short-term base and increase the probability of another test of $62,535. The more serious bearish development would be sustained trade below $62,380. That would place BTC outside the previous month’s accepted value area and suggest that the market may need to search for demand at lower prices. Traders should still distinguish between a brief move below $62,380 and genuine acceptance beneath it. Crypto markets can produce fast stop-runs through visible support before reversing. Repeated closes or continued trading below the level would carry more bearish significance than a momentary sweep. What Bitcoin traders may consider watching Different traders may use these levels in different ways, at their own discretion: Short-term breakout confirmation: Watch whether BTC can break above $63,175 and successfully retest it, with $63,247-$63,270 providing the next validation area. Support-zone reaction: If BTC returns to $62,380-$62,535, watch whether buyers defend it again or whether selling begins to hold below the zone. Broader recovery confirmation: Treat $64,000-$64,095 as the decisive recovery test instead of assuming that every bounce from $63,000 marks a durable bottom. Because Bitcoin trades continuously, weekend conditions can sometimes involve thinner liquidity and less reliable breakouts. Confirmation through time, repeated closes or a successful retest may therefore be more useful than reacting to the first price spike. What should Bitcoin traders watch next? Bitcoin has defended the lower part of the previous month’s value area, but the rebound still needs to prove itself. The immediate challenge is to move beyond $63,175 and $63,270. The much larger test remains $64,000-$64,095. A successful reclaim would indicate that Bitcoin is returning toward the center of the previous month’s accepted value rather than merely bouncing from support. Until that happens, Bitcoin may be stabilizing, but it is not yet showing a fully confirmed bullish recovery. This analysis presents conditional market scenarios and opinions (not promises) at investingLive.com, not a guarantee of future performance. Traders should consider volatility, position size and their own risk limits before acting. This article was written by Itai Levitan at investinglive.com.

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