From Decrypt · By Jose Antonio Lanz
In brief
Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent Cantor Fitzgerald a 13-item request for records on its Tether business arrangement, with responses due Oct. 23.
The letter claims Cantor's 5% Tether stake rose from $600 million to an estimated $10 billion since Trump returned to office, but does not accuse Cantor of breaking a specific law.
Blumenthal also asks for the terms of any Tether loan that helped Howard Lutnick transfer his Cantor stake to his children.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal is asking Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald to hand over records on its business relationship with Tether, the issuer of USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin—the dollar-pegged digital asset that underpins the crypto economy.
He also wants to know how much money the family of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has made from the arrangement, according to a letter dated Thursday.
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“Disturbingly, Cantor Fitzgerald’s lucrative business arrangements with Tether come at the expense of America’s national security,” Sen. Blumenthal argued.
The letter went to Brandon Lutnick, Cantor’s chairman and Howard Lutnick’s son, from Blumenthal as the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. It is a request for information with an Oct. 23 deadline rather than a subpoena, and it describes the minority’s probe as an investigation into “the illicit use of cryptocurrencies and the Trump Administration’s self-enrichment and self-dealings with cryptocurrency firms.”
The letter does not accuse Cantor of breaking a specific law, and nothing in it is a finding of wrongdoing. It asks how the firm checks that Tether follows U.S. sanctions and anti-money-laundering rules, and the claims about Tether and the Lutnick family are Blumenthal’s, built on press reports and his staff’s earlier work.
“Just as Tether has made untold millions in interest and investments from the stablecoins used in these illicit activities, so has Cantor Fitzgerald profited from its relationship with Tether,” Blumenthal wrote.
BitcoinBTC · USD$82,459−2.2%Oct 2Oct 4Oct 6Oct 8Oct 9$86.7k$84.7k$82.7k$80.7k24h HighHigh$83,39824h LowLow$81,407VolVol$1.0BMarket projectionsOdds by MyriadThis week$82,000 to $84,000$82k–$84k60% chance→Buy Bitcoin with USDTPowered by JupiterPrice data by CoinGeckoCoinGeckoMore Bitcoin news and projections →“Given the longstanding and deeply intertwined relationship between Tether and Cantor Fitzgerald, and its substantial relationships within the Trump Administration, I am writing to request information about your business partnership with Tether and to learn about your practices for detecting violations of American banking and sanctions laws,” the senator added.