Warren, Wyden Question Lutnick Over Tether Loan to Kids’ Trust

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden on April 29 asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick whether the stablecoin issuer Tether lent money to a trust that benefits his four children to help finance his October 2025 sale of a multibillion-dollar stake in Cantor Fitzgerald.

The senators cited documents showing a trust benefiting Lutnick’s children borrowed from Tether in October 2025, at the same time Lutnick transferred his Cantor stake to multiple trusts for his children. The borrowing trust reportedly holds more than half of Cantor’s equity and the loan was secured by “all assets” in the trust, the letter states. The senators asked whether the loan funded the divestiture, whether Lutnick played any role in procuring, soliciting or negotiating the loan, the loan’s size and terms, and whether he has had any contact with Tether or its executives since becoming Commerce Secretary.

“If reports of this loan are accurate, it would raise serious questions about your relationship with Tether and the company’s influence on your policy decisions,” the senators wrote. “We want to ensure that Tether has not sought to bribe or otherwise exert control or influence over you.”

Lutnick became Commerce Secretary in February 2025 and agreed to divest his holdings in Cantor Fitzgerald; he completed that divestiture in October 2025. He was Cantor’s longtime chairman and chief executive. Cantor manages the U.S. Treasury bonds that back Tether’s USDT stablecoin. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2024, Lutnick told an audience, “There’s a company that I like called Tether. From what we’ve seen, and we did a lot of work, they have the money they say they have.”

The senators’ letter requests documents and communications that could clarify whether Tether’s financing was tied to the sale and whether any financial interests remain connected to the company. The inquiry follows lawmakers’ concerns about potential conflicts of interest involving officials with ties to the cryptocurrency industry and recent congressional attention to crypto-related relationships.

Tether and the Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The senators asked for records on the loan’s terms, the timeline of communications with Tether, and whether the secretary or his advisers were involved in arranging the financing.