{"id":11221,"date":"2025-02-04T10:16:55","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T10:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=11221"},"modified":"2025-02-04T10:16:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T10:16:55","slug":"howard-lutnick-softens-stance-on-tether-stability-investment-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=11221","title":{"rendered":"Howard Lutnick Softens Stance on Tether Stability, Investment Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Howard Lutnick, the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald and President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Commerce Secretary, was recently playing defense during another nomination hearing in front of Senate Democrats about the financial services giant’s investment in Tether, the company that issues the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT.<\/p>\n

Lutnick appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Jan. 29, the day after his testimony at the Senate Banking Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cantor Fitzgerald serves as Tether\u2019s primary custodian for U.S. Treasuries, manages a significant portion of its reserves, and holds convertible debt issued by Tether\u2019s parent company. <\/p>\n

The nature of the reserves backing USDT<\/a> has been of concern to the crypto industry for years. In 2023, Lutnick tried to downplay those concerns<\/a> by attaching Cantor’s name to it, saying that as its custodian, he knows Tether is good for the money it says is behind the stablecoin. During the hearing, however, Lutnick appeared to soften some of the comments he made regarding this.<\/p>\n

\u201cCantor Fitzgerald is not conducting continuous diligence on Tether\u2019s financial statements, but I believe my statements were accurate when made,\u201d Lutnick said according to a published transcript, dialing back his previous claim that \u201cTether has every penny, and it can produce liquidity on a moment\u2019s notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Polymarket, bettors are giving<\/a> a 10% chance that Tether will become insolvent in 2025, and a 14% chance<\/a> it will de-peg during the year, which would be the sign of trouble at the issuer. A contract asking the question<\/a> about insolvency for 2024 averaged around 4% during the last quarter of the year.<\/p>\n

Lutnick also confirmed that \u201cCantor Fitzgerald made a convertible debt investment in the holding company that owns the Tether stablecoin business in April 2024.\u201d He clarified that this doesn\u2019t mean Cantor has an ownership stake in the stablecoin issuer.<\/p>\n

\u201cCantor Fitzgerald\u2019s debt investment in Tether does not constitute an equity interest,\u201d he said, dismissing concerns that the brokerage firm\u2019s ties to Tether run deeper than disclosed.<\/p>\n

Tether’s critics often say that there should be an audit of the company’s books, given the importance that USDT has on the broader crypto ecosystem. While Lutnick acknowledged this should happen for U.S. dollar stablecoin issuers, he stopped short of demanding it for Tether.<\/p>\n

When asked if he would publicly call on Tether to submit to an independent audit within three months, he stated: “Upon my confirmation as Secretary of Commerce, I will faithfully execute my duties consistent with applicable government ethics laws and regulations.”<\/p>\n

Addressing questions over his influence on crypto regulation, Lutnick dismissed allegations that he had pledged to \u201cdefuse threats\u201d against Tether.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never suggested to anyone that I would do anything improper with respect to Tether,\u201d he said. He cautioned, however, that \u201cthe U.S. Congress should be careful not to undermine dollar hegemony on blockchain through legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Howard Lutnick, the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald and President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Commerce Secretary, was recently playing defense during another nomination hearing in front of Senate Democrats about the financial services giant’s investment in Tether, the company that issues the world’s largest stablecoin, USDT. Lutnick appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-11221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}