Trump Taps Bitcoin, Tether Bull Howard Lutnick for Transition Team

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has named Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as co-chair of his transition team ahead of the presidential election in November—and Lutnick is a big Bitcoin bull.

Trump's campaign made the announcement Friday, also noting that Linda McMahon—the former administrator of the Small Business Administration—would serve as co-chair alongside Lutnick.

Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance will serve as an honorary chair alongside Trump's sons Eric and Donald Jr. Transition teams help prepare candidates to make the move into the White House should they win the election.

Lutnick, who leads the investment banking giant, has previously said he is a "fan" of Bitcoin and the stablecoin Tether.

Asked last December by CNBC if he was broadly into cryptocurrency, he replied, "I am a fan of crypto. But let's be very specific: Bitcoin. Just Bitcoin." However, he then added that he and Cantor Fitzgerald are also invested into stablecoin giant Tether.

Lutnick even spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference last month in Nashville, where he added his investment bank was "a rockstar in the digital asset space" and reiterated his enthusiasm for Bitcoin. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate in the upcoming election, also spoke at the event.

Donald Trump and Bitcoin: From 'Not a Fan' to Crypto President—With His Own Meme Coin

Bitcoin-friendly Donald Trump won the election in November, and was inaugurated Monday as the 47th President of the United States of America. But ahead of being formally sworn in, the commander in chief dropped a meme coin on Friday. Yes, you read that right. Running on the Solana network, the TRUMP token already has a market cap of over $8 billion, putting it among the 30 most valuable coins on the market. The move signaled the incoming President’s growing enthusiasm for the digital asset space...

Trump has come out as a crypto-friendly candidate ahead of the U.S. November election. The former reality television star and real estate mogul even said that he wants all future Bitcoin to be mined on U.S. soil. Silicon Valley bigwigs and tech entrepreneurs—some in the crypto space—have donated to the Republican frontrunner's campaign.

Edited by Andrew Hayward