Brandon Lutnick, Son of US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, is Building a $3B Bitcoin Venture

Brandon Lutnick, the son of US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, is teaming up with SoftBank, Tether, and Bitfinex to build a $3 billion Bitcoin venture

The son of U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, Brandon Lutnick, is joining forces with SoftBank, Tether, and Bitfinex to create a $3 billion Bitcoin venture, capitalizing on a pro-crypto shift in U.S. policy, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The consortium will launch a new firm called 21 Capital using $200 million raised in January through the recently established SPAC, Cantor Equity Partners, which is planning to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

21 Capital will receive $1.5 billion in Bitcoin from Tether, $900 million from SoftBank, and $600 million from Bitfinex, and it will also raise a $350 million convertible bond and a $200 million private placement of equity to fund further Bitcoin purchases.

The partners’ cryptocurrency investments will be converted into shares of 21 Capital at $10 per share, which will effectively value Bitcoin at $85,000 per coin.

The deal, which could be announced as early as this week, will expand Cantor’s footprint in the digital asset market, following its role in advising on Tether’s investment in Rumble.

The venture aims to capitalize on the success of MicroStrategy, which recently underwent a name change to Strategy, and has become a favorite among investors for its bold strategy of accumulating large amounts of Bitcoin.

The FT report comes after Strategy announced last week that it had purchased another 6,556 BTC.

Strategy’s massive Bitcoin holdings helped it secure a spot in the Nasdaq-100 index, and despite recent market volatility, which has affected several tech stocks in recent weeks, Strategy’s shares are still up 159% over the past year, according to Yahoo Finance.