Share this article
Howard Lutnick: Tether’s Big Backer
The CEO of prominent bond broker Cantor Fitzgerald played a major role in validating Tether this year by vouching for its reserves.
Updated Dec 10, 2024, 7:53 p.m. Published Dec 10, 2024, 3:28 p.m.
Howard Lutnick's firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, is a prominent Wall Street bond broker and a member of an exclusive club: It's a primary dealer that gets to trade directly with the Federal Reserve. So when Lutnick — Tether's U.S. Treasuries dealer — said this year that Tether actually has the money it says is backing its huge USDT stablecoin, that put a final nail in the coffin of conspiracy theories claiming otherwise.
Lutnick's other source of influence is being a supporter of crypto — well, he's specific: just bitcoin and stablecoins — in close orbit around President-elect Donald Trump, serving now as co-chair of Trump's transition team and a nominee to run the Commerce Department.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
It's not clear how responsible Lutnick was for Trump's turnaround on crypto (going from somewhat opposed during his first presidency to full embrace on the campaign trail this year), but if Lutnick whispered the “pro” argument in Trump’s ear, it couldn't have hurt.
This profile is part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024 package. For all of this year's nominees, click here.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
JPMorgan Pushes Deeper Into Tokenization With Galaxy's Debt Issuance on Solana
Galaxy’s onchain debt deal, where JP Morgan acted as arranger, was settled in USDC stablecoin and backed by Coinbase and Franklin Templeton.
What to know:
- J.P. Morgan arranged Galaxy Digital’s commercial paper issuance on the Solana blockchain, one of the first of its kind in the U.S.
- Coinbase and Franklin Templeton bought the short-term debt instrument, settled in USDC
- Tokenization of real-world assets is gaining traction, with projections suggesting the market could reach $18.9 trillion by 2033.
Top Stories
