Cryptic

Season 1, Episode 6: THE ONE WHERE HOWARD LUTNICK GETS IN BED WITH TETHER AND SCORES A MASSIVE PAYDAY On May 17, 2024, Giancarlo Devasini, reportedly owner of the majority of Tether’s voting stock, told an associate that he had given @HowardLutnick a large number of @tether shares “bloody cheap”. Devasini’s admission followed Lutnick’s January 2024 Bloomberg appearance in Davos when, unprompted by the interviewer, Lutnick launched into a long monologue in which he passionately vouched for Tether. In his confirmation hearing on Jan. 29, 2025, Lutnick, now the United States Commerce Secretary, admitted that Devasini sold his firm @CantorFitzgerald a 5% economic interest in Tether in early 2024 for $600 million, implying a $12 billion valuation. Fast forward to today, as Tether is currently marketing a private fundraising round of $20 billion on a $500 billion pre-money valuation, which would balloon the Lutnick/Cantor stake by ~42x, to around $25 billion. The fundraising is reportedly being led directly by “the Chairman’s office” at Cantor, according to a source. While Cantor is not publicly listed, LLMs estimate the bank’s enterprise value in the $8-10 billion range, a figure now dwarfed by the imputed value of its Tether stake. On June 8, 2024, Devasini said of Lutnick: “Howard is a caricature of himself. He’s a shark. He’ll take a piece of flesh if he has a chance. So the game is always to align his interest.” The big question, then, which perhaps @wsj @bloomberg @ft @nytimes may be interested to dig into: Who does Howard Lutnick, the current Commerce Secretary of the United States, really work for? And for @RealDonaldTrump: When push comes to shove, is @HowardLutnick going to have your back, or will he do the bidding of the guys who are making him rich beyond anything you could ever do for him? Note: The Senate Committee responsible for oversight is Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, led by Tim Scott @SenatorTimScott and Elizabeth Warren @ewarren. The House Committee is Financial Services, led by French Hill @RepFrenchHill and Maxine Waters @RepMaxineWaters.