Exclusive: Tether Owns the Lutnick Empire
The Commerce Secretary's family fortune depends on a crypto firm sitting on $133 billion in Treasury bills — a single point of failure for U.S. markets
When Howard Lutnick became Commerce Secretary in February 2025, he was required to divest from Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street firm he had led for three decades. He sold his stake to a trust for his four children — who did not have the funds to purchase it outright. To facilitate the deal, Tether — the company whose $133 billion in reserves Cantor holds — loaned the children the money to buy their father’s firm.
According to Bloomberg (March 18, 2026), “Dynasty Trust A” — benefiting all four Lutnick children — borrowed an undisclosed sum from Tether in October 2024. New York credit filings show the loan is secured by all of the trust’s assets, including a $600 million convertible bond that entitles Cantor to a 5% stake in Tether itself.
To recap: Tether loaned the funds to the Lutnick family trust. The loan’s collateral is a convertible bond that gives Cantor an ownership stake in Tether. In effect, Tether financed the purchase of the firm that safeguards Tether’s own reserves — using that firm’s stake in Tether as security.
If the trust defaults, Tether would seize the collateral and become the senior creditor for the Commerce Secretary’s family business. The Lutnick family’s fortune — and the Wall Street firm responsible for safeguarding $133 billion in stablecoin reserves — would be at the mercy of a single crypto company.
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