Bitcoin Could Free Businesses From Bank Control, CEO Says

Twenty One Capital holds 43,514 Bitcoin worth roughly $3.3 billion — and its CEO wants the world to know why.

A Direct Attack On Card Networks

Jack Mallers took the stage at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference with one clear message: the payment system that most Americans rely on every day is rigged against the people running businesses.

Mallers, who leads Twenty One Capital, said card networks like Visa and Mastercard have built a structure that squeezes merchants while keeping consumers too distracted by perks to notice. Bitcoin, he argued, is the way out.

The math he laid out is simple. Every time a customer swipes a credit card, the merchant on the other end of that transaction loses 3% to 5% of the sale.

That money doesn’t vanish — it gets recycled back to consumers as cashback, airline miles, and lounge access. Rewards that feel like a bonus are actually funded by the businesses accepting the cards.

“They are holding merchants hostage and abusing customers,” Mallers said.

What Bitcoin Offers Instead

Mallers said Bitcoin can move money across the world quickly and at far lower cost than the existing card infrastructure allows.

That makes it more useful than gold, he argued, which is slow to transfer and difficult to use in everyday transactions. Gold stores value. Bitcoin stores value and moves it.

He also pointed to why most people don’t already spend crypto on daily purchases. His explanation was blunt: people spend the money they think will lose value and hold onto the money they think will gain it.

Since Bitcoin’s supply is capped at 21 million coins, holders expect it to appreciate — so they keep it rather than spend it. Dollars, by contrast, get spent because inflation erodes their value over time.

Mallers said his goal isn’t just personal. He wants BTC payments to become a real option for every entrepreneur and consumer in the country, breaking what he called the “chokehold” that card networks and centralized institutions have over how money moves.

Twenty One Capital’s Bitcoin holdings put Mallers in the position of second-largest public crypto holder, according to data from Bitcoin Treasuries. At current prices, those 43,514 coins are worth approximately $3.3 billion.

His company’s position makes clear that his push for BTC adoption isn’t purely philosophical.

Still, the argument he’s making — that small businesses absorb hidden costs every time a rewards card gets swiped — is one that merchants across the country have raised for years, long before crypto entered the conversation.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView