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Cantor Fitzgerald Buys 5% of Tether for $600M; Lutnick, Trump's Commerce Nominee, Plans $2B Bitcoin Lending

Nov 24, 2024, 06:17 AM

Cantor Fitzgerald, a major financial services firm led by CEO Howard Lutnick, has agreed to acquire a 5% stake in Tether Holdings, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, for up to $600 million, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal. Lutnick, who is President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Commerce Secretary, may use his political influence to address regulatory threats facing Tether. Tether's CFO, Giancarlo Devasini, reportedly said privately earlier this year that Lutnick would "use his political clout to try to defuse threats facing Tether." Cantor Fitzgerald, which is one of the primary dealers authorized to trade U.S. government securities with the Federal Reserve, holds most of Tether's $134 billion in assets. Lutnick himself holds hundreds of millions of dollars in Bitcoin. The acquisition aligns with Cantor Fitzgerald's plans to launch a $2 billion lending project tied to Bitcoin, where it will lend USD to clients against Bitcoin.