U.S. President Donald Trump Has Found Yet Another Way to Make ‘Crypto’ Bank While Tether’s Biggest Wall Street Fan Says Artificial Intelligence (AI) Will Scrub Away Its Crypto Crime Stains

On January 29, Howard Lutnick, the boss of Wall Street financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald (NASDAQ: ZCFITX) and Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Commerce

U.S. President Donald Trump has found yet another way to make ‘crypto’ bank while Tether’s biggest Wall Street fan says artificial intelligence (AI) will scrub away its crypto crime stains.

On January 29, Howard Lutnick, the boss of Wall Street financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald (NASDAQ: ZCFITX) and Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Commerce, sat for a Senate confirmation grilling that only briefly questioned his ties to Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin by market cap (USDT).

On January 27, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent Lutnick a letter demanding answers on his Tether ties. Warren expressed “serious concern” regarding Lutnick’s “deep involvement with and support for Tether, a known facilitator of criminal activity.” Warren said Lutnick’s Tether link “raises concerns about your judgment and ability to put the interests of the American people ahead of your own financial interests.”

But Warren doesn’t have a seat on the Commerce committee, leaving it up to her colleagues to shoulder this load. In her opening remarks, ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) described herself as a blockchain fan—and yet she holds an ‘F’ rating from the astroturf group Stand With Crypto—but referenced Tether as among her concerns regarding Lutnick’s private sector ties.

During her five minutes of interrogating Lutnick, Cantwell addressed Tether’s history of being repeatedly fined by state and federal regulators for failing to ensure that each of its tokens was backed 1:1 with dollars. Cantwell asked Lutnick, whose company allegedly custodies Tether’s alleged $100+ billion in U.S. Treasury bills if he agreed that stablecoins should submit to regular independent audits, something Tether has steadfastly refused to do.

Lutnick said he believes dollar-denominated stablecoins “should be audited, should be completely backed by U.S. Treasuries 100%.” And yet Tether’s quarterly attestations—which aren’t audits—show tens of billions in assets other than T-bills, including gold, the BTC (CRYPTO: BTC) token and even loans to unidentified third parties, some of which may not be unrelated parties.

Cantwell then addressed reports that Lutnick and/or Cantor had taken a 5% ownership stake at some undetermined point. Asked if he owned Tether, Lutnick played cute, saying, “A Tether? [As in, a single USDT token.] No.” Pressed for clarity, Lutnick denied that he had any personal ownership stake in Tether and similarly claimed Cantor “has no equity in Tether.”

Growing frustrated, Cantwell pressed Lutnick harder, asking if he, as an investor or Cantor, owned a piece of Tether. Following a pregnant pause, Lutnick said, “Cantor Fitzgerald owns a convertible bond with Tether.”

Moving on, Cantwell wondered how legislators/regulators might address the $19 billion or so in annual illicit activity that Tether facilitates.

Lutnick played his moral relativity card, saying that the “number one instrument of criminals is the U.S. dollar, number two is the Euro … Tether is the largest stablecoin so criminals use it more than Circle [issuer of USDT rival USDC] … It’s like blaming Apple because criminals use Apple phones. [Tether’s] just a product. We don’t pick on the U.S. Treasury because criminals use dollars.”

Lutnick added that he’d “asked [Tether] to and they are signed up with all U.S. federal law enforcement. They follow all federal law enforcement [requests to freeze individual USDT digital wallets] instantly.”

Cantwell said she was more interested in the big picture of “Why aren’t we taking more seriously a potential $19 billion illicit market that’s going against the United States? … What do you recommend we do to get a handle on that?”

Lutnick claimed his and Cantor’s due diligence concluded that “Tether did no business with anyone who wasn’t KYC [know your customer] appropriate.” Lutnick was referring to crypto market-makers like Tether’s biggest customer, Cumberland DRW, as Tether doesn’t sell to retail customers.

Pressed as to whether secondary crypto markets needed tighter regulations vis-à-vis Tether, Lutnick basically said not to worry, that “AI tools used by the U.S. government running through the blockchain of stablecoin issuers will rid the world of criminals using blockchain for illicit activity.”

The next Tether reference didn’t come until nearly three hours into the hearing when Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO)—another ‘F-rated’ pol—referenced Russia and Iran using USDT to bypass economic sanctions. Hickenlooper also detailed Americans falling victim to ‘pig butchering’ scams before asking how to crack down on