Did stablecoin-backed Treasurys custodian Cantor Fitzgerald buy tariff refunds for 20 cents on the dollar?

Kripto piyasalarında dikkat çekici bir gelişme yaşandı. When Customs launched the CAPE refund portal, it put administrative certainty behind an asset class that Wall Street had already begun pricing. 9, 56,497 importers had registered for electronic refunds totaling $127 billion, out of roughly $166 billion the government expects to be returned after the Supreme Court ruled in February that IEEPA did not authorize President Donald Trump's tariffs. CBP says valid claims will generally be paid within 60 to 90 days .

That timetable has brought a set of questions back into focus, including what Cantor Fitzgerald actually did with tariff-refund rights, and what Howard Lutnick knew about it while serving as Commerce Secretary. WIRED reported in July 2025 that a Cantor representative had approached importers offering to buy tariff-refund rights for 20 to 30 cents on the dollar , claimed the firm had capacity for “several hundred million” of these trades, and said Cantor had already put through a transaction representing about $10 million of IEEPA rights. The pitch described an arbitrage scheme consisting of buying distressed claims from importers who wanted liquidity now and collecting at or near par when courts ruled the tariffs unlawful .

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Cantor called the reporting “absolutely false,” with a February report by Semafor noting that the firm had considered the product but decided against it, and quoted a spokesman saying Cantor had “never executed any transactions or taken risk on the legality of tariffs. ” Related Reading Bitcoin faces a $175B liquidity shock as tariff refunds move to trade court The refund fight moves to trade court, but markets are already pricing a potential cash transfer that could reshape liquidity fast. Feb 22, 2026 Gino Matos As of Apr.

21, these two records sit unresolved. The structural position Howard Lutnick occupied made that dispute combustible from the start. He publicly backed across-the-board tariffs and advised Trump to pursue them while Cantor's investment bank was exploring ways to profit if courts later invalidated those same tariffs, according to WIRED.

Cantor Fitzgerald has publicly served as a custodian for Tether’s US Treasury holdings, tying Lutnick’s former firm to one of crypto’s most important reserve pools. Tariff-refund claims repriced from a reported 20–30 cents on the dollar in mid-2025 to 55–75 cents by early April 2026, once the CAPE portal went live. The ethics architecture Lutnick built that structure to create a clean line between his policy role and his former firm's commercial activity.

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He transferred his Cantor stake to trusts for his adult children, controlled by Brandon Lutnick, and agreed to forgo all economic benefits in Cantor, BGC, and Newmark as of May 16, 2025. His OGE ethics agreement states he would receive no economic benefits associated with his ownership while the sale remained pending. Congressional Democrats argued that the arrangement fell short of that standard.

Senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren demanded in August 2025 that Cantor disclose how many tariff-refund agreements had been drafted or finalized and if Cantor or an affiliate was the counterparty. Representative Jamie Raskin followed in February 2026 with a records request directed at both Howard and Brandon Lutnick, citing the “appearance of tariff profiteering” and asking for documents covering any agreements, counterparties, communications with Commerce or the White House, and any nonpublic information related to the tariff litigation. Both the congressional demands and Cantor's responses left the ownership question publicly unresolved.

Topic What is documented What is disputed / unresolved Why it matters Cantor’s reported trade pitch WIRED reported offers to buy rights at 20–30 cents , claimed capacity for “several hundred million,” and a claimed $10M transaction Cantor denied the reporting; Semafor said the product was considered but not executed Decides whether this was just market exploration or an actual transaction Howard Lutnick’s ethics structure Stake transferred to trusts for adult children; Brandon Lutnick controls trusts; Howard agreed to forgo economic benefits as of May 16, 2025 Whether that structure fully insulated policy decisions from firm activity Central conflict-of-interest question Congressional scrutiny Wyden/Warren asked about drafted/finalized agreements and counterparties; Raskin sought records from Howard and Brandon Lutnick No public resolution on whether executed agreements existed Shows the issue had formal oversight, not just media attention Refund ownership chain CAPE pays importers of record / authorized brokers Private contracts, term sheets, and side letters may hold economic rights outside the portal Explains why the portal alone may not answer who really profits Current refund market Claims repriced sharply higher; some importers can sell at 55–75 cents ; lenders require large claims Who bought, financed, or arranged those positions in specific cases Turns the story from theory into traceable economics reported in February that secondary market prices for tariff-refund claims surged once the Supreme Court ruled, reaching 40 to 50 cents on the dollar from roughly 16 to 17 cents for fentanyl-tariff claims and 26 to 28 cents for reciprocal-tariff claims before the decision. By early April, reports noted that some importers could sell a $500,000 claim outright for roughly 55 to 75 cents on the dollar, while others were exploring loans backed by claims, with lenders generally requiring at least a $10 million loan secured by a claim of at least $20 million. A claim purchased at 20 to 30 cents on the dollar in mid-2025, in a market now clearing between 55 and 75 cents for some categories, would represent a decent return on cost if purchased and held.

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