30s Summary

Future US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering Cantor Fitzgerald CEO and cryptocurrency advocate Howard Lutnick as his Commerce Secretary. Although initially eyeing a Treasury Secretary position, Lutnick appears to be aiming for Commerce, having played a role in Trump’s transition team. His company is heavily involved in finance, notably in cryptocurrency and bond markets, and has recently gotten into bitcoin financing. Lutnick supports lower regulation for bitcoin and has expressed his preference for it over other cryptocurrencies.

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So, here’s the news: it seems that future President Donald Trump is eyeing up bigshot Howard Lutnick – the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and huge crypto enthusiast – as his Commerce Secretary. This got tongues wagging at Punchbowl News and The Wall Street Journal.

Lutnick was hoping for the Treasury Secretary role, but peeps are saying his chances have slipped recently. The latest word on the street is that he’s getting nominated for the Commerce role instead. This hasn’t put him off though as he’s also been working with Trump’s transition team.

Lutnick’s company, Cantor Fitzgerald, is a bigwig in finance – especially in the bond market world. It’s one of the select few allowed to trade directly with the Federal Reserve. Since dipping its toes into crypto in 2021, it’s been helping Tether with the mega amount of U.S. Treasuries that back its USDT stablecoin. They’re even launching a bitcoin financing business with a casual $2 billion of initial funding.

In a podcast with CNBC last year, Lutnick gave us a taste of his crypto thoughts – he’s a big fan of bitcoin, but not so much the other coins. He’s also got a soft spot for tether. The guy reckons bitcoin should be treated as a commodity, which means it would get less regulation than stocks or bonds. Plus, he believes bitcoin is a better bet than other cryptos as there’s no central authority messing things up.

Lutnick, who’s 63, and Trump go way back – they’re both New Yorkers. In fact, Lutnick is currently co-chair of the Trump transition team. His company, Cantor Fitzgerald, has had to face some serious hardship: they tragically lost 658 employees in the 9/11 attacks. This hard knock forced them to move away from the traditional human approach to Treasury trading and embrace electronic trading. Today, Wall Street is getting on board with crypto and blockchains, seeing it as a fresh way to disrupt old-school business practices and record-keeping.