Strategy and other publicly traded BTC holders now have serious competition. With a Cantor-backed SPAC, a $1.5 billion PIPE, and a founding team led by Bitcoin pioneer Adam Back, BSTR is entering the corporate Bitcoin game with a balance sheet most crypto firms can only dream of.
According to a press release dated July 17, Bitcoin Standard Treasury (BSTR) has entered a definitive agreement to go public via a merger with Cantor Equity Partners I, a SPAC affiliated with Cantor Fitzgerald.
The deal will launch BSTR with 30,021 Bitcoins (BTC) on its balance sheet, positioning it as the fourth-largest public Bitcoin treasury globally, with up to $1.5 billion in fiat-denominated PIPE financing.
The company will be led by cryptographer and Blockstream co-founder Dr. Adam Back, with former public pension fund allocator Sean Bill serving as CIO. Upon closing, BSTR will trade on Nasdaq under its own ticker, pending customary approvals and shareholder consent.
The move signals a maturation in how institutions approach Bitcoin. Beyond being just a speculative asset, the original cryptocurrency is now viewed as a foundation for entirely new financial infrastructures.
A Bitcoin-native blueprint for capital markets
While firms like Michael Saylor’s Strategy helped define the corporate Bitcoin treasury model, BSTR appears to be charting an entirely different course. Rather than simply holding Bitcoin as a reserve asset, the company aims to build a full-stack financial platform native to BTC, from in-kind yield strategies to capital markets products and sovereign advisory services.
Per the press release, BSTR will not benchmark itself against dollar-denominated metrics. Instead, it plans to measure success in Bitcoin per share, an approach that frames BTC not as a hedge or speculative asset but as the foundational unit of modern balance sheet design. The model reflects a deeper integration of Bitcoin into institutional strategy, one that views the protocol not just as a store of value, but as a financial substrate.
BSTR’s capital structure underscores this shift. The company secured up to $1.5 billion in PIPE financing, including equity, convertible notes, and the first-ever preferred round announced in a Bitcoin treasury SPAC deal.
Perhaps more telling is that a portion of the raise, 5,021 BTC to be exact, was funded directly by long-time Bitcoin holders in-kind, marking the first PIPE of its kind in public markets. On top of that, the founding team is contributing 25,000 BTC at listing. These commitments, priced at a fixed $10 per share, give the firm immediate scale and a degree of treasury credibility few public companies can match.
Cantor Fitzgerald’s involvement lends institutional credibility to this experiment. The firm isn’t just a SPAC sponsor; it’s a 79-year-old Wall Street institution with a history of bridging niche assets and mainstream finance. Its backing signals that Bitcoin treasuries are evolving beyond corporate speculation into a legitimate capital markets category.
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