30s Summary
President-elect Trump has chosen Howard Lutnick, a known cryptocurrency advocate and CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, as his Secretary of Commerce. Lutnick co-leads Trump’s transition team. His company manages the treasury and bond portfolios of stablecoin issuer Tether, which has a market cap of $129 billion but has faced criticism over its financial transparency. Lutnick is also a Bitcoin supporter and has committed Cantor Fitzgerald to a $2 billion Bitcoin financing venture. He will replace former Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo as Secretary of Commerce.
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Howard Lutnick, CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, has been picked by President-elect Donald Trump as his Secretary of Commerce. This is pretty big news in the world of cryptocurrency because Lutnick is known for promoting this digital currency.
The role of Secretary of Commerce involves boosting US business operations at home and globally. This person is part of the US president’s close-knit advisory team. Interestingly, Lutnick is also co-leading Trump’s team to help him transition into the president’s role, so his appointment to this Cabinet position isn’t a huge surprise.
Lutnick is pretty big deal in the crypto community. Why? Well, his company, Cantor Fitzgerald, has been managing the treasury portfolio of stablecoin issuer Tether since 2021 and its bond portfolio since 2023. If you’re not familiar with Tether, it’s a digital currency that has an impressive market cap of $129 billion. That said, it’s also faced criticism over its bookkeeping practices and for dodging requests to carry out a financial audit.
Despite this, Lutnick has openly stood behind Tether and backed its financial standing. He’s also expressed being a “big fan” of Bitcoin. He has a unique opinion on it though. Earlier this year, he said that while buying Bitcoin through Spot BTC ETFs is a way forward for Americans, Bitcoin isn’t essentially an American phenomenon.
In fact, things got even more interesting when Lutnick showed up at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July. He announced that Cantor Fitzgerald would be starting a Bitcoin financing venture with a whopping initial lending amount of $2 billion. While the specifics of this business haven’t been disclosed, even Trump made an appearance at this conference.
Lutnick’s views on Bitcoin don’t just end there. In a conversation with Fox news recently, he called Bitcoin a commodity and even chided US regulators for their lack of knowledge about digital currencies, saying they still don’t recognize how crucial it is to get it right. Moving forward, Lutnick will replacing former Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo in his new role.