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Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), sent Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman Brandon Lutnick a letter on October 8, 2026, seeking details about the firm’s relationship with stablecoin issuer Tether. He asks about reserve custody, revenue, investments, audits and compliance controls, and sets an October 23 response deadline. The letter is an information request—not a finding of wrongdoing—and the available reporting does not establish that Cantor has responded.
What is the Senate asking Cantor Fitzgerald about?
Blumenthal’s letter requests that Cantor preserve relevant records and answer questions about the scope and history of its Tether relationship. The questions seek information about:
- When and how the partnership began, and what services Cantor provides, including any custody or oversight roles.
- Annual revenue from the relationship, earnings by members of the Lutnick family, Cantor’s ownership stake in Tether and related investment positions.
- Whether Tether receives independent audits and how Cantor monitors sanctions and anti-money-laundering compliance.
- Cantor’s know-your-customer and due-diligence policies, and what circumstances could lead it to end the relationship.
- Howard Lutnick’s transfer of his Cantor ownership, any Tether financing associated with that transfer, and communications or investigations related to illicit-finance allegations.
The letter also seeks communications involving Howard Lutnick and digital-asset advisers. Blumenthal frames the inquiry as part of the PSI minority’s examination of illicit cryptocurrency use and alleged self-enrichment or self-dealing involving the Trump administration and crypto firms. Those are the stated investigative concerns, not conclusions established by the letter.
What is known about Cantor Fitzgerald’s relationship with Tether?
CoinDesk reports that Cantor holds and manages Tether’s U.S. reserves and that the companies have other shared business interests. The letter seeks more detail about the services, custody arrangements, investments, earnings and decision-making involved; it does not itself establish the full terms of those arrangements.
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The letter is addressed to Brandon Lutnick, whom CoinDesk identifies as Cantor’s CEO and Howard Lutnick’s son. CoinDesk reports that Howard Lutnick transferred company leadership when he joined the Trump administration as Commerce Secretary. Blumenthal asks about Howard Lutnick’s involvement and communications concerning Tether after he left his role as Cantor chairman.
What did the Senate minority-staff report say about USDT and illicit finance?
A September 28, 2026, PSI minority-staff report analyzed transaction data from 846 unique wallets that had been sanctioned or targeted for seizure because of associations with Iran and regional proxies. The report says it supplemented U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Israeli NBCTF wallet designations with other public attribution and analytical methods.
- 84% of the 846 wallets transacted exclusively or nearly exclusively in USDT — according to the Senate PSI minority-staff report’s analysis. This percentage applies to that defined group of wallets, not to all USDT transactions.
- More than $603 million in USDT moved over four years, from 2021 to 2025, through a network the report tied to two sanctioned Iranian oil smugglers, Hizballah, the Houthis and Iranian financial institutions — an example of flows described in the report.
- $34.6 million continued to move through sanctioned wallets after designation in one case — according to the report.
Wallet addresses are pseudonymous: an address alone does not establish who controlled it or where that person was located. The report’s findings concern its selected wallets and attribution methods; they should not be generalized to all USDT use.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the letter does—and does not—establish
The October 8 letter asks for information; it is not a court ruling, an enforcement action or a final committee finding. Its questions do not establish that Cantor or Tether violated a law, nor do they resolve the report’s claims about wallet activity. The financial estimates and valuations cited in the letter are attributed to outside reporting, not presented as figures independently audited by the letter.
CoinDesk reported that Cantor Fitzgerald and Tether had not immediately responded to requests for comment at publication. The requested response date, October 23, 2026, is still in the future as of October 9, 2026.
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