In a post on X on Sept. 4, the American billionaire businessman said that Bitcoin has been an outsider to the TradFi community over the past five years, and it’s only now “dipping its toe into global finance.”
He added that his firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, will help the traditional finance sector onboard Bitcoin as it wants new asset classes.
“Cantor will help tradfi bring Bitcoin all the way in. Tradfi wants new asset classes, and BTC is here to stay.”
TradFi Companies Want Bitcoin
Howard William Lutnick succeeded Bernard Gerald Cantor as the head of Cantor Fitzgerald in 1991. The firm is an American financial services company founded in 1945 with $480 billion in assets under management (AUM).
In late July, Cantor announced plans to launch a Bitcoin financing business to provide leverage to investors who hold BTC. The firm stated at the time that it aims to launch with $2 billion in initial financing and will continue to grow the operation substantially.
In his latest appraisal of the asset, Lutnick said there were still hurdles to mainstream onboarding because banks still can’t clear it, can’t transact in it, can’t custodian it, and won’t finance it … yet.
“I think people misunderstand traditional financial service companies – they want to transact with Bitcoin, they want new asset classes to transact in.”
Over the last five years, #Bitcoin has been an outsider to the tradfi community, and it’s only now dipping its toe into global finance. Cantor will help tradfi bring Bitcoin all the way in. Tradfi wants new asset classes, and $BTC is here to stay. pic.twitter.com/XdMMuw254p
— Howard Lutnick (@howardlutnick) September 3, 2024
However, they need regulators to “say its okay,” he added. Banks do not want to hold Bitcoin because they have to lock away the equivalent in cash, he said. But if there was regulatory approval, “you will see all the traditional financial services companies, the big banks, the big brokerage companies, they’re all going to go head first into Bitcoin.”
He said it was a slow and steady process, but eventually, there will be a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair who says Bitcoin is a financial asset, and we’re going to treat it as such.
“When that happens, you’re going to see Bitcoin move in a very strong, positive direction,”
Ultimately, as Bitcoin “gets invited to this party” over the next five years, up it will go, the billionaire executive concluded.
But Not Yet …
Unfortunately, bitcoin’s price is going in the other direction today, with a slump of more than 4%, falling back to support levels at $56,600.
The asset has been slowly downtrending since mid-March, having now lost 23% from its all-time high.