Senate Democrat Demands Cantor Fitzgerald Tether Records by October 23

The Cantor Fitzgerald Tether partnership is under fresh scrutiny in Washington. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent the Wall Street firm a 13-item request for records on its business with the USDT issuer and on how much Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's family has earned from it, Decrypt reported, with responses due October 23.

What happened

The letter, dated Thursday, October 8, 2026, went to Brandon Lutnick, Cantor's chairman and Howard Lutnick's son. "Disturbingly, Cantor Fitzgerald's lucrative business arrangements with Tether come at the expense of America's national security," Blumenthal wrote. According to Decrypt, it is a request for information rather than a subpoena, and it describes the minority staff's work as an investigation into "the illicit use of cryptocurrencies and the Trump Administration's self-enrichment and self-dealings with cryptocurrency firms."

The figures in the letter are Blumenthal's claims. He wrote that Howard Lutnick has made more than $250 million since President Donald Trump returned to office, including a $192 million distribution from Cantor, and that over the same period Cantor's 5% stake in Tether rose in estimated value from $600 million to $10 billion, Cointelegraph reported. Decrypt added that the firm also collects tens of millions of dollars a year from the assets it holds for Tether.

The requests are broad. Blumenthal asked how Cantor checks that Tether complies with U.S. sanctions and anti-money-laundering rules, what know-your-customer policies it applies, whether it has ever considered ending the relationship and what it has discussed with the President's Council of Advisors on Digital Assets. He also wants Howard Lutnick's records on Tether from his time at Cantor, including "any discussion of Tether with the White House or state and federal regulators, lobbying on Tether's behalf," and the terms of any loan or legal arrangement that helped Lutnick pass his stake to his children. Decrypt linked that request to a reported Tether loan to a trust for Lutnick's four children, which Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden questioned in April.

"Given the longstanding and deeply intertwined relationship between Tether and Cantor Fitzgerald, and its substantial relationships within the Trump Administration, I am writing to request information about your business partnership with Tether," the senator wrote. Howard Lutnick ran Cantor until the Senate confirmed him as Commerce Secretary in February 2025, Decrypt noted.

Why it matters

Cantor is not a passive investor. It has acted as a custodian for a portion of the U.S. Treasuries backing Tether's reserves since 2021, and acquired rights to a 5% stake in Tether in 2024, Cointelegraph said. Blumenthal noted that although Tether says it operates from El Salvador, "the vast majority of its assets reside in the United States under your custodianship." That makes the Cantor Fitzgerald Tether link a pressure point for any lawmaker who wants to reach the stablecoin issuer through a U.S. institution.

The letter builds on the subcommittee Democrats' September report, "Tethered to Terrorism." Decrypt said the report found that 84% of 846 crypto wallets sanctioned or targeted for seizure over links to Iran and its proxies used USDT exclusively or almost exclusively, although the figure rests unevenly on two lists: 87% of 757 wallets designated by Israel's counter-terror finance bureau, against 57% of 101 designated by the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Tether responded that it has worked with law enforcement for years and has frozen nearly $550 million of Iran-linked USDT this year. The issue overlaps with the administration's own sanctions push, covered in our report on Treasury's A7 network sanctions, and with Tether's expansion abroad, such as its Kazakhstan stablecoin agreement.

Decrypt stressed that the letter does not accuse Cantor of breaking any specific law and that nothing in it is a finding of wrongdoing. Cointelegraph said neither Cantor nor Tether responded immediately to its request for comment.

What's next

Cantor has until October 23 to respond and has been asked to preserve every document and communication related to its Tether relationship. As a minority-party request, the letter carries no power to compel. Whether it leads anywhere may depend on whether the Treasury or the Justice Department, which Blumenthal has urged to investigate possible sanctions violations, takes up the matter.

For the Cantor Fitzgerald Tether relationship, the near-term risk is reputational and political rather than legal. Markets will watch whether Cantor replies publicly and whether other lawmakers join the request. This article is for information only and is not investment advice.