Blockspace: Tether’s $XXI merger, Paul Sztorc is forking BTC, and $MARA buys a gas plant

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Tech News, Business News, Daily News, News

4.7 • 698 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2026

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tether proposes a massive merger of Strike, 21 Capital, and Elektron to create the ultimate Bitcoin services company, $XXI. And developer Paul Sztorc discusses his controversial Bitcoin fork and why Drivechains are needed to save Bitcoin. We also discuss MARA's $1.5 billion energy acquisition. Paul Sztorc, Drivechain author and founder of LayerTwo Labs, joins us to talk about his decision to fork Bitcoin and why he believes the current path is “like the Titanic heading for an iceberg”. Also Tether proposing a merger of 21 Capital, Strike, and Elektron to create a "super soldier chimera" of public Bitcoin companies known as $XXI. Finally, we break down the massive news from MARA regarding their $1.5 billion purchase of a massive gas plant to fuel their mining operations. Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com 👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success. 👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor! 👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What is going on, y'all?
0:07.1	Welcome back to Blockspace Live.
0:09.5	We've got Colin Harper and Charlie Spears, your co-host, coming at y'all,
0:13.1	fresh as daisies after a week in Las Vegas for Bitcoin 2026.
0:18.1	We've got a fun lineup for news today and a really spicy interview coming to y'all.
0:23.4	So to headline the news, we've got tether proposing a merger of 21 capital, strike, and
0:29.3	electron to create, what would you say, Charlie, like the chimera of public Bitcoin companies?
0:34.9	The chimera, it's the super super soldiers the super soldier chimera of bitcoin
0:39.5	super soldier chimera of bitcoin in what could be one of the most explosive mergers yet in the
0:45.8	industry following that we have drive chains uh drive chains developer and long time bitcoin
0:53.9	developer paul sorks on to talk about his
0:56.3	e-cash fork and why he thinks it's really important that we fork Bitcoin right now.
1:01.3	Please stay around for that one. It's going to be fun, Charles. We've got some great questions for
1:04.6	him. For our second news item, we've got news coming out of Mara that they just purchased a
1:10.7	500 megawatt combined
1:12.7	cycle gas plant for $1.5 billion from FTAI infrastructure, the Lone Ridge energy site,
1:21.7	huge M&A deal, more on that to come. And then to close out the show, we've got a little bit
1:26.5	of a prediction markets paloosa. We've got a number of news stories that kind of show the current state of
1:32.4	prediction markets, including insider trading, newcomers coming to the show, and Polly Market
1:36.8	saying that, hey, we're going to start tapping chain analysis to make sure that people
1:40.4	don't insider trade on our platform. Ooh, chain analysis. So block space goes live Monday, Wednesday, Friday at noon Eastern,
1:49.0	featuring quick hits on the latest in Bitcoin mining, AI and emerging tech.
	...

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