Cantor Fitzgerald, the venerable Wall Street brokerage, is poised to deepen its foray into digital assets with a proposed $4 billion special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal involving Blockstream, one of the most established players in Bitcoin infrastructure.
If completed, the deal would represent one of the largest institutional bitcoin transactions to date, and a decisive step toward mainstreaming Bitcoin treasury strategies at scale.
The Financial Times first reported that Cantor Equity Partners 1—a blank-check company that raised $200 million in January—is nearing an agreement with Adam Back, co-founder of Blockstream.
Back is expected to contribute up to 30,000 bitcoin to the vehicle, currently valued at over $3 billion. Additional capital of up to $800 million will also be raised to expand the vehicle’s bitcoin holdings, bringing the total transaction to more than $4 billion.
The newly combined entity will be renamed BSTR Holdings.
This move, if finalized, would mark Cantor Fitzgerald’s second significant crypto-linked transaction in 2025.
Earlier this year, the firm was involved in a $3.6 billion bitcoin acquisition venture with SoftBank and Tether.
With both deals, Cantor is positioning itself as one of the most aggressive institutional buyers of bitcoin, at a time when much of traditional finance remains cautious.
Structure Reflects a New Asset Class Philosophy
Unlike traditional corporate treasury allocations—where bitcoin might represent a fractional hedge or diversification play—the BSTR Holdings structure is explicitly engineered to hold bitcoin as a primary asset.
This is not an enterprise using bitcoin to back operations or customer balances; it is a vehicle built around the direct accumulation of the cryptocurrency.
Blockstream and Back’s in-kind contribution of bitcoin in exchange for equity means the firm isn’t raising capital to buy bitcoin—it’s creating equity instruments directly backed by it.
In effect, bitcoin becomes the cornerstone of the capital stack.
Such a model aligns with a broader trend in markets where new corporate vehicles—whether through SPACs, reverse mergers, or public listings—are being built to accumulate and hold bitcoin rather than develop products or services in the traditional sense.
Back’s role in this transition is central. He is best known for inventing Hashcash, a precursor to Bitcoin’s proof-of-work protocol, and for co-founding Blockstream in 2014 with backing from venture investors such as Khosla Ventures and Baillie Gifford.
This year, he has also taken equity stakes in at least two other European bitcoin treasury-oriented firms: a €5 million equity investment in France’s The Blockchain Group, and a $15 million convertible bond in Swedish firm H100 Group.
Governance and Strategic Direction
The SPAC is chaired by Brandon Lutnick, who became chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald earlier this year.
The 27-year-old assumed the role following the appointment of his father, Howard Lutnick, as U.S. Commerce Secretary. Under his leadership, Cantor has embarked on an ambitious expansion into digital assets.
The structure of the deal suggests a high level of conviction. SPACs have traditionally been used to bring operating companies public.
Here, the SPAC structure is being leveraged to pool capital and bitcoin into a treasury-focused holding company.
The absence of an operating business does not diminish the ambition—instead, it reflects a view of bitcoin as a primary store of value, akin to a strategic commodity.
Implications for Corporate Treasury Strategy
For corporate treasurers, the deal presents both a data point and a strategic provocation.
Until recently, institutional engagement with bitcoin was typically limited to single-digit percentage allocations or indirect exposure through ETFs.
Cantor’s approach breaks from this convention in both scale and structure.
The use of in-kind contributions, equity swaps, and large-scale direct holdings represents a different kind of exposure—one less oriented around liquidity management and more aligned with long-horizon balance sheet strategy.
It also introduces new governance, custodial, and risk management considerations that many treasury departments are only beginning to explore.
Crucially, the vehicle is not hedging, lending, or staking the bitcoin. It is holding. That alone differentiates it from other crypto-linked enterprises that monetize assets through operational or yield-bearing strategies.
Whether this model proves durable or not, its emergence suggests that bitcoin-native capital formation is entering a new phase—where financial instruments are purpose-built around digital assets, rather than merely accommodating them.
Macro Context
The timing of the deal coincides with heightened political attention on digital assets in the U.S. House of Representatives, where Republican lawmakers have dubbed the current week “crypto week” as they debate regulatory frameworks for digital currencies.
The alignment of this deal with broader legislative developments may be coincidental, but it underscores the institutional shift underway.
If completed, the BSTR Holdings transaction would not only be among the largest bitcoin acquisitions in history, but also one of the clearest examples of digital assets being integrated into the highest levels of corporate finance infrastructure.
It also raises questions about valuation strategy, audit treatment, and investor communication.
As more companies explore digital asset accumulation—whether for diversification, treasury strategy, or capital appreciation—the models adopted by firms like Cantor and Blockstream will become increasingly influential.
What Comes Next
Cantor has not formally confirmed the transaction, and sources told the Financial Times that terms could still change. But even in its current form, the deal is a strong indicator of how the capital markets are evolving.
Bitcoin is no longer merely an exotic asset class on the periphery of finance. For a growing number of firms—and now, it seems, for at least one major Wall Street institution—it is becoming a core building block of capital strategy.
The implications for corporate finance, treasury policy, and institutional capital formation are profound. Whether others follow Cantor’s lead remains to be seen. But the precedent is now set.