Tether-controlled Twenty One Capital (XXI) appointed Raphael Zagury as CEO, replacing Jack Mallers, and removed Strike from a proposed three-way merger, the companies said.
Mallers resigned effective July 20 to focus on Strike, the bitcoin payments company he founded. Strike will remain independent and is no longer being considered for a business combination with Twenty One, according to a press release.
Tether, Twenty One’s majority shareholder, confirmed the changes in a separate announcement.
Tether proposed combining Twenty One, Strike and Elektron in April, seeking to place bitcoin treasury, financial services and mining under a single publicly traded company.
Twenty One’s revised strategy will focus on acquiring operating businesses, expanding capital markets capabilities and developing bitcoin-backed loans.
XXI has changed little in pre-market operations.
CoinDesk has reached out to all three companies but has not received a response at the time of writing.
