Senator Richard Blumenthal has asked Cantor Fitzgerald to hand over records on its business relationship with Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin.
Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent the letter on 8 October to Cantor chairman Brandon Lutnick. Brandon is the son of Howard Lutnick, who ran Cantor until he became Commerce Secretary in February 2025.
The letter is a request for information, not a subpoena. Nothing in it is a finding of wrongdoing, and it does not accuse Cantor of breaking any specific law.
What the letter asks for
Blumenthal wants 13 sets of records. They include Cantor’s sanctions and anti-money laundering checks on Tether, its know-your-customer policies, whether it has considered ending the relationship, and its communications with the President’s Council of Advisors on Digital Assets.
He also asks about the terms of any Tether loan or legal arrangement that helped Howard Lutnick transfer his Cantor stake to his children, and for Howard Lutnick’s own records on Tether from his time at Cantor, including any lobbying on Tether’s behalf. Cantor has until 23 October to respond and has been asked to preserve all related documents.
The figures he cites
According to Blumenthal, Cantor’s 5% stake in Tether has grown in value from about $600 million to an estimated $10 billion since Donald Trump returned to office. As Tether’s custodian, Cantor collects “tens of millions of dollars a year” from the assets it holds, he said, adding that “the vast majority of its assets reside in the United States under your custodianship.”
His central claim is that “Cantor Fitzgerald’s lucrative business arrangements with Tether come at the expense of America’s national security.”
The letter follows a report released about 10 days earlier that found 84% of 846 sanctioned or targeted wallets used USDT exclusively or nearly so. In April, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden questioned Lutnick and Tether about a reported Tether loan to a trust for Lutnick’s four children.
The responses
Tether published a statement pointing to about $550 million in Iran-linked funds it has frozen this year, including $344 million in April and more than $130 million in July. It did not directly address the sanctioned-wallets report.
No response from Cantor Fitzgerald or the Commerce Department had been reported at the time of writing.
