Howard Lutnick is moving to strengthen his alliance with one of the most important and controversial names in the digital asset space: Tether Holdings Ltd.
Lutnick is in talks to deepen financial ties between his companies and the company behind the world’s largest stablecoin, according to people familiar with the matter.
Cantor Fitzgerald LP is discussing receiving support from Tether for its planned multi-billion dollar project program The people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said they would lend dollars to customers who offer bitcoin as collateral.
Funding for the program will start at $2 billion and is expected to eventually reach tens of billions, a separate person told Bloomberg.
Tether currently uses Cantor’s custodial business to hold billions of dollars in US Treasury securities that back the value of its dominant stablecoin USDT. Which Custody relationship Cantor earns tens of millions of dollars a year, according to people familiar with the matter.
Lutnick is co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and Trump’s pick to run the Commerce Department.
Trump has been a recent and vocal supporter of and promoted digital assets like Bitcoin A crypto project linked to his children It’s called global financial freedom. Trump’s transition team is thinking about it Whether a new position will be created in the White House for cryptocurrency policyAs Bloomberg reported earlier.
While Cantor is trying to hire staff to launch the program, it has not officially started lending. If Tether participates, the cryptocurrency company would likely be one of multiple financial shareholders, one of the people said.
A Cantor spokeswoman declined to comment. Tether executives could not immediately be reached for comment outside normal business hours.
Read more: Tether reserves already exist, says Cantor Fitzgerald’s Lutnick
He faced the rope Audit by governments including the United States For possible violations of sanctions and anti-money laundering rules. The company denied these allegations.
Lutnick’s company also has a deal to invest in Tether, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, adding that Cantor’s stake has been valued at up to $600 million and the ownership stake is about 5%.
As Lutnick moves to run the Commerce Department, he is preparing to hand over his company’s relationship with Tether, which he largely controls, to his colleagues, according to two people familiar with the matter. His son, Brandon Lutnick, is a trader at Cantor and previously interned at Tether in Lugano, Switzerland.
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