Adam Back’s BSTR SPAC Restructure, EU Crypto Custody Review, and Bitcoin Supply-Cap Debate
What happened: Adam Back’s Bitcoin Standard Treasury (BSTR) and Cantor Equity Partners I formally scrapped their original July 2025 SPAC merger terms, postponing the shareholder vote indefinitely and
What happened: Adam Back’s Bitcoin Standard Treasury (BSTR) and Cantor Equity Partners I formally scrapped their original July 2025 SPAC merger terms, postponing the shareholder vote indefinitely and dropping the PIPE component. The move comes as the EU’s ESMA launches a bloc-wide supervisory review of crypto custody and operational resilience, following the MiCA regulatory phase-in. Separately, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson proposed replacing Bitcoin’s 21M supply cap with a 4% annual issuance rate to offset lost coins, sparking heated community debate.
Why it matters: The BSTR SPAC restructure signals shifting deal dynamics for crypto capital markets, with PIPE investor reluctance and regulatory uncertainty playing a role. ESMA’s custody review marks the first coordinated EU-level scrutiny of crypto asset safekeeping, raising the bar for compliance post-MiCA. The supply-cap debate, though not a formal governance proposal, highlights ongoing tensions between economic orthodoxy and pragmatic network maintenance as lost BTC estimates mount.
Source: Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, Bloomberg