Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike & Twenty One Capital
Biography
Jack Mallers was born on April 9, 1994, in Chicago, Illinois, into a family deeply rooted in the financial markets. His grandfather served as chairman of the Chicago Board of Trade, and his father, Bill Mallers Jr., co-founded a pioneering discount futures brokerage firm. Growing up immersed in the world of trading and markets, Mallers developed an early appreciation for financial systems and their impact on everyday life.
After attending St. John’s University in New York for one year, Mallers dropped out to enroll in Starter School, a coding bootcamp in Chicago. There he taught himself to build software, creating early projects including a client management tool for personal trainers and a transportation app for wheelchair users. His father introduced him to Bitcoin in 2013, but it was not until 2017 — when he grasped the transformative potential of the Lightning Network — that his career trajectory changed forever.
In 2017, Mallers founded Zap, a Lightning Network wallet, and in 2020 he launched Strike, a Bitcoin-based payments platform that has since expanded to over 100 countries. He was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in Finance in 2019 and received the Bitcoin Pioneer Award at Bitcoin 2021. In April 2025, Mallers co-founded Twenty One Capital with backing from Tether and SoftBank, which began trading on the NYSE under ticker XXI in December 2025 with over 43,500 Bitcoin in holdings valued at approximately $3.9 billion. His net worth is estimated between $50 million and $100 million.
Orange Pill Story
Jack Mallers’ Bitcoin journey began in 2013 when his father, Bill Mallers Jr., casually introduced him to the concept. As a teenager growing up in a Chicago finance family, he was curious but not yet convinced. It was not until 2017, while deep in coding and exploring open-source projects, that Mallers discovered the Lightning Network — Bitcoin’s layer-two scaling solution that enables near-instant, low-cost payments.
The realization that Bitcoin combined with Lightning could fundamentally rewire the global payments system was Mallers’ true orange-pill moment. He saw that billions of people worldwide were being exploited by expensive remittance corridors and excluded from the financial system entirely. He founded Zap to build Lightning Network tools and then Strike to put those tools in the hands of ordinary people. By 2021, he was on the ground in El Salvador, onboarding 20,000 users per day and helping President Nayib Bukele draft the historic Bitcoin Law that made El Salvador the first nation on Earth to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. In January 2024, Mallers declared on X that he no longer owns any U.S. dollars — not even a penny — going fully all-in on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Philosophy & Quotes
“Bitcoin can change the world because the world cannot change Bitcoin.” — Jack Mallers, Bitcoin Magazine, 2024
“Bitcoin is the best performing asset in the history of mankind.” — Jack Mallers, CNBC interview via Benzinga, November 2024
“No man should work for what another man can print.” — Jack Mallers, The Bitcoin Conference, 2025
“I no longer own any US dollars. Not even a penny. As an American millennial, I love our country but I oppose our money. I’m all in on Bitcoin.” — Jack Mallers, X/Twitter, January 2024
“Bitcoin before its computer code, before it’s an asset, before it’s an ETF, to me, it’s moral code. Bitcoin is: you shall not censor, you shall not inflate, you shall not confiscate, you shall not counterfeit, and you shall not steal.” — Jack Mallers, CoinDesk, July 2025
“Bitcoin is a solution, it is not a hedge.” — Jack Mallers, Money Matters Podcast via Wealthion, November 2024
“If you want more bitcoin, you don’t go to the bitcoin factory. You have to go up in price.” — Jack Mallers, Nasdaq, 2024
“Any country positioning against innovation is not good — it’s against the best interest of humanity. Bitcoin transcends race, gender, culture, country, borders.” — Jack Mallers, CNBC Interview, August 2021
“You shouldn’t have to sell the best-performing asset in human history to access cash. Now you don’t have to.” — Jack Mallers, X/Twitter, announcing Strike Lending, 2025
Involvement with Bitcoin
Jack Mallers’ contributions to Bitcoin adoption are among the most consequential of anyone in the industry. In 2017, he founded Zap, one of the earliest Lightning Network wallets, helping to prove that Bitcoin could handle fast, cheap payments at scale. In 2020, he launched Strike, which has grown into one of the most widely used Bitcoin payments platforms, operating in over 100 countries and integrating with major point-of-sale providers.
His most historic contribution came in June 2021, when he took the stage at the Bitcoin Conference in Miami and tearfully announced that he had been working with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to draft the Bitcoin Law. This legislation made El Salvador the first sovereign nation to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. In 2022, Mallers announced partnerships with Shopify, NCR, and Blackhawk Network to bring Bitcoin Lightning payments to mainstream retail.
In April 2025, Mallers co-founded Twenty One Capital alongside Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and with major backing from SoftBank, creating a Bitcoin-native treasury company that went public on the NYSE in December 2025. Twenty One launched with over 43,500 BTC, making it the third-largest corporate Bitcoin holder in the world. Mallers also launched Strike Lending in 2025, enabling users to borrow against their Bitcoin holdings without selling.
Media Appearances & Coverage
Jack Mallers is one of the most visible figures in the Bitcoin space. He has appeared on CNBC multiple times, including a widely viewed 2021 interview discussing Strike’s role in El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption. He hosts The Jack Mallers Show podcast and has been a guest on major shows including What Bitcoin Did with Peter McCormack, The Investor’s Podcast (Bitcoin Fundamentals), Wealthion with Anthony Scaramucci, and TFTC with Marty Bent. Mallers is a perennial headliner at Bitcoin conferences worldwide, including Bitcoin 2021 (where he made the El Salvador announcement), Bitcoin 2022 (Shopify/NCR partnerships), BTC Prague, Bitcoin Amsterdam 2025, and he is confirmed for Bitcoin 2026. He was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2019, received CoinDesk’s Most Influential recognition multiple years running, and won the Bitcoin Pioneer Award in 2021.
Notable Bitcoin Tweets
Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of Strike, burst onto the world stage when he helped El Salvador adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. A passionate builder and fiery speaker, Mallers has dedicated his career to making Bitcoin accessible as a global payment network through the Lightning Network.
“Bitcoin will succeed, because I won’t let it die. The developers, the unbanked, the hodlers, and the millennials won’t let it die.”
— @jackmallers
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“Save in bitcoin. Spend in fiat. Avoid selling. Stack more sats. Gresham’s Law. The Bitcoiner’s Life Hack.”
— @jackmallers, March 2026
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“#Bitcoin fixes this.”
— @jackmallers, 2022
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