Cantor Fitzgerald LP is to enter the Bitcoin financing sector, providing leverage to cryptocurrency investors. The investment bank has announced plans to allocate $2 billion to this new business, the company said in a recent press release.
The initiative was unveiled by Cantor Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
Lutnick compares Bitcoin to Gold
During his speech, Lutnick emphasized the company’s commitment to facilitating global trade in Bitcoin, comparing the cryptocurrency’s potential to that of gold.
“In my view, Bitcoin, like gold, should be freely traded around the world, and as the world’s largest wholesaler , we will do everything we can to make that happen,” – Lutnick said.
He also mentioned that Cantor already owns a significant amount of Bitcoin. Cantor’s new business will work with selected Bitcoin depositories, although specific partners and a launch schedule were not disclosed.
Lutnick stressed that after using the initial $2 billion, Cantor plans to increase its allocation by an additional $2 billion to sustain the business.
Also present at the conference was Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who according to his opponent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was expected to present a plan for the U.S. government to accumulate substantial Bitcoin reserves.
If this proposal is confirmed, it could become a key aspect of Trump’s attraction to the cryptocurrency industry. In addition to his new Bitcoin financing business, Cantor serves as a trustee of Tether Holdings Ltd, the issuer of stablecoin USDT, which has about $114 billion in circulation.
The company has also secured significant funding for digital asset companies, including cryptocurrency miners Bitdeer, TeraWulf, Riot Platforms and Cipher Mining.
Jersey City pension fund will invest in Bitcoin ETFs
The municipal pension plan of Jersey City, New Jersey, is to allocate a portion of the municipal pension fund to crypto-ETFs. The municipal pension fund, known as the Employees Retirement System of Jersey City, is currently going through SEC regulatory requirements to integrate some of its assets into Bitcoin ETFs.
While details of the pension fund’s allocated percentage to Bitcoin ETFs remain undisclosed, Mayor Fulop has suggested that Jersey City’s approach will mirror the Wisconsin state pension fund, which allocated 2% of its allocation to Bitcoin ETFs earlier this year.
As reported, quantitative fund Kbit believes that higher returns lie in the digital asset space itself, as hedge funds turn to traditional strategies such as basis trading to capitalize on the recent rise of cryptocurrency ETFs.
“The bigger opportunities, the higher return opportunities are in the native cryptocurrency markets,” said Ed Tolson, founder and CEO of Kbit, during a recent interview.
Tolson stressed the importance of engaging in centralized cryptocurrency exchanges and trading various crypto instruments, including tokens, perpetual swaps and derivatives.
