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SPAC deal reset
Adam Back’s bitcoin treasury company, Bitcoin Standard Treasury Company (BSTR), and Cantor Equity Partners I (CEPO) said they will not complete their merger under the July 2025 business combination agreement and will negotiate revised terms.
“Adam Back's bitcoin treasury firm scraps SPAC merger, seeks new deal BSTR and Cantor Equity Partners will not complete their merger under the original July 2025 agreement, with the shareholder meeting postponed indefinitely”
CoinDesk reported that BSTR and Cantor scrapped the original structure, dropped the planned PIPE financing, and indefinitely postponed the July 10 shareholder meeting, with any CEPO redemption requests cancelled and shares returned.
Bitcoin Magazine said the parties would not complete the proposed bitcoin business combination on the terms set in their July 2025 agreement and instead planned to negotiate a revised structure and amended terms that reflect market conditions.
The original plan had been for BSTR to go public on Nasdaq under the ticker BSTR through a merger with CEPO, with the combined entity launching with 30,021 bitcoin and a private investment in public equity of about $1.5 billion.
Bitcoin Magazine also said the Securities and Exchange Commission declared the registration statement effective on June 5, 2026, and CEPO mailed its proxy to shareholders that day.
Why financing failed
Benzinga said the merger was scrapped after BSTR failed to raise $1.5 billion in financing, and it described the deal as including plans to raise up to $1.5 billion through private investment in public equity to buy more Bitcoin.
Benzinga added that Wednesday’s announcement formally scrapped the original agreement, canceled the private placement financing, indefinitely postponed a shareholder meeting scheduled for July 10, and returned shares to CEPO shareholders whose redemption requests were pending.
CoinDesk reported that BSTR and Cantor said they would not complete the transaction under the terms of the July 2025 business combination agreement and that they were negotiating a revised structure with further details expected in future filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
CoinDesk also said CEPO shares continued to trade around $10.50, even as the companies abandoned the original structure agreed last year.
Benzinga framed the financing failure against bitcoin’s recent performance, noting that Bitcoin has lost roughly half its value since October’s all-time high, making investors reluctant to back new Bitcoin treasury vehicles at current prices.
Next steps and ripple
Bitcoin Magazine said Adam Back used X to confirm that “From today’s filing, @bstrco and $CEPO have agreed to work together on and are currently discussing a potential revised structure and amended terms,” and it said the companies expected to share more in due course.
“Cantor Equity Partners I (Nasdaq: CEPO), a special purpose acquisition company backed by an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald, and BSTR Holdings said today that they will not complete their proposed bitcoin business combination on the terms set in their July 2025 agreement”
Bitcoin Magazine reported that any new terms would require fresh filings with the SEC to amend the registration statement and proxy, after the path to a vote proved rough with the shareholder meeting pushed from June 26 to July 2 and then to July 10.
Crypto Briefing said the announcement landed on July 8, 2026, roughly a year after the two companies first struck their deal, and it described the original agreement as valued at approximately $4 billion with the Bitcoin firm contributing roughly 30,021 BTC.
TradingView said BSTR wanted to change the terms of its merger agreement with Cantor for a public offering, and it quoted the companies saying they intended to negotiate terms that “better reflected market conditions.”
CoinDesk also reported that stablecoin market cap fell to $312B in June, its largest monthly drop since TerraUSD, while tokenized equity volumes surged 145% to a record $3.86B.
