Twenty One Capital CEO Jack Mallers said big banks and card payment networks are hurting merchants with high fees, while Bitcoin offers a cheaper and open alternative. While he sees Bitcoin as better than gold because it can move money fast worldwide.
In the meantime, Bitcoin is trading near $77,219, holding strong as adoption and real use cases continue to grow.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference, Jack Mallers walked straight to slam card networks, big banks, and the entire infrastructure that currently controls how money moves around the world.
“These card networks have all of us right where they want us.” “They’re effectively holding merchants hostage and bribing the person at checkout to use their option instead of Bitcoin.”
It was a direct, unfiltered attack on a system that most people use every single day without thinking twice about it.
“I don’t have access to the Visa rails. I don’t have access to the Mastercard rails. They’re abusing these merchants and treating them unfairly,” Mallers said directly.
Mallers want Bitcoin payments to be enabled, not just for themselves, but for every entrepreneur and consumer in America.
“My passion for using Bitcoin as payments is actually to dematerialize the chokehold that card networks and centralized entities have on our ability to facilitate settlement.”
I want all the greatest entrepreneurs in this country to compete to give me the best wallet to check out.
Mallers explained the card payment system in a simple way that surprised many people. Mallers said the system works well for card networks, but not for merchants.
When you pull out your American Express card or your Chase Sapphire card at checkout, you are doing it because of the rewards. Free flights. Airport lounge access. Cash back. Points that add up over time. It feels like a good deal for the consumer.
But Mallers explained exactly who is actually paying for those rewards, and it is not the card companies.
“They charge the merchant 3, 4, 5%. And then they share that with the consumer,” he explained. “So they’re effectively holding merchants hostage and bribing the person at checkout to use their option instead of Bitcoin.”
That means every card swipe can take a painful cut from small businesses like restaurants and local shops. Meanwhile, customers focus on points, cashback, or free travel without seeing the hidden cost.
Mallers did not stop at card fees. He said Bitcoin is not only a store of value like gold, but also a real payment network. It lets people send money across the world quickly and at very low cost.
Gold, by comparison, is hard to move and slow to use. Mallers argued that in today’s digital world, money needs to be fast, cheap, and easy to use, and Bitcoin fits that need better.
He also explained why many people do not use Bitcoin for daily purchases. According to him, people spend dollars because dollars lose value over time. They hold Bitcoin because its supply is fixed at 21 million coins.
Nobody wants to spend the money they think will be worth more tomorrow. So they spend the money they think will be worth less.
Mallers is not just talking about his company, Twenty One Capital, which holds around 43,514 BTC, worth about $3.3 billion. This shows strong belief in Bitcoin’s long-term value.
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