Ruthnick Reveals $250 Million Income... The Connection Between Tether, Cantor, and His Children Comes to Light

[Block Media Reporter Ham Ji-hyun] Howard Ruthnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, reportedly earned at least $250 million (approximately 336.2 billion KRW) last year. A significant portion of this income came from Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street financial firm he led, while it has also come to light that Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, lent money to a trust with Ruthnick's four children as beneficiaries, reigniting controversy over potential conflicts of interest surrounding the Ruthnick family.

According to an annual ethics disclosure obtained by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 4th, Ruthnick reported a minimum income of $250 million for 2025. Of this, at least $190 million was distribution received before transferring Cantor shares to his family. Ruthnick stepped down from Cantor's management upon taking office as Secretary of Commerce in February 2025, and the company is currently led by his two sons.

As Ruthnick's financial interests have been newly disclosed, Tether is also rapidly expanding its presence in traditional financial markets. Recently, Tether announced plans to launch a private credit fund in partnership with Pasanara Capital, contributing $400 million and raising up to $3 billion from external institutional investors.

As the world's largest stablecoin company moves beyond issuing USDT to directly supplying credit as a financial institution, interest in the financial transactions between the Ruthnick family and Tether is once again being drawn.

Cantor-Tether Romance... 5% Stake Acquisition Rights and Loans to Ruthnick's Children's Trust

At the center of the connection between Ruthnick and Tether is Cantor Fitzgerald.

Ruthnick led Cantor until his appointment as Secretary of Commerce. Cantor has been a key financial partner for Tether in the U.S., involved in managing Tether's reserve assets, including U.S. Treasury bonds. Ruthnick has also actively defended Tether in public, stating that it holds sufficient assets to back USDT.

According to WSJ, Cantor secured the right to acquire a 5% stake in Tether in the form of convertible bonds (CB) worth $600 million in 2024. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) analyzed that, based on Tether's estimated corporate value, this stake could be worth around $10 billion. However, Tether has not officially confirmed this stake relationship.

The connection between a private financial company and a stablecoin issuer turned contentious as Ruthnick joined the Trump administration, raising conflict of interest issues.

The controversy was fueled by financial transactions between Tether and the Ruthnick family.

According to a Bloomberg report cited by ICIJ, Tether lent money to a trust with Ruthnick's four children as beneficiaries several months after the "GENIUS Act," which established a regulatory framework for U.S. stablecoins, passed in July 2025. The amount of the loan has not been disclosed.

Particularly, the timing of the transaction attracted political attention. Ruthnick completed the disposal of his Cantor shares on October 6, 2025, and the following day, October 7, it was revealed that Tether provided a loan to the "Dynasty Trust A," which has Ruthnick's four children as beneficiaries.

As a result, the question arose as to whether Ruthnick's economic interests, even if he does not directly hold Cantor shares, could conflict with government policies through his children and the trust.

However, there is no evidence confirming that Tether's loan was a quid pro quo for Ruthnick's policy decisions. Both Cantor and the U.S. Department of Commerce maintain that Ruthnick complied with relevant ethical obligations.

Rare Earth Transactions... Ongoing "Family Business" Controversy

This is not just a problem for Tether. The potential for conflict of interest between the Department of Commerce led by Ruthnick and Cantor, managed by his two sons, has been raised in other government transactions as well.

In June, the U.S. Department of Commerce finalized a support contract worth $1.6 billion with the rare earth company USA Rare Earth (USAR). In the process of pursuing this transaction, USAR separately sought $1.5 billion in private funding and selected Cantor as the lead underwriter.

In response, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Chris Van Hollen, along with Representative Zoe Lofgren, initiated an investigation in July, demanding documentation from Cantor and USAR. The lawmakers raised concerns that transactions linked to government support could have generated millions of dollars in profits for Cantor, led by Ruthnick's sons.

Ruthnick denies these allegations of conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, Cantor has continued to expand its influence in the digital asset market even after Ruthnick's departure.

On the 19th of last month, Cantor began offering services to facilitate large-scale trading of event contracts on the prediction market Kalshi, regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This is a business targeting approximately 3,000 institutional clients. Cantor acts as the intermediary for the trades, while Susquehanna Predictions provides pricing and liquidity at an institutional scale.

Through this, Cantor has become one of the first comprehensive investment banks supporting large-scale event contract trading in CFTC-regulated prediction markets. The Cantor team, led by Chairman Brandon Ruthnick and co-CEO Pascal Vanderlier, explained that despite the rapid growth of prediction markets, there has been a lack of means to conduct large trades in regulated markets, causing institutional participation to lag, stating, "Liquidity is already in place."

Warren and Wyden: "Did Tether Influence Ruthnick?"

Political attention is particularly focused on the financial relationship between Tether and the Ruthnick family.

Democratic Senators Warren and Wyden sent a letter to Tether in April, demanding documentation and responses regarding transactions with the Ruthnick family.

The two senators stated, "We want to confirm whether Tether attempted to bribe Secretary Ruthnick or exert control or influence in other ways," and conveyed a series of questions regarding transactions between Tether and the Ruthnick family.

ICIJ reported, citing sources familiar with the communications, that Tether had not responded to the senators' inquiries by that time.

So far, no illegal activities by Ruthnick or Tether have been confirmed, nor has any evidence been disclosed indicating that there was a quid pro quo between Tether's loans and U.S. government policy decisions.

However, the recent disclosure of Ruthnick's economic benefits from Cantor has specifically revealed the scale of his earnings, and the ongoing investigations into conflicts of interest surrounding family businesses, such as the Tether children's trust loan and the USAR transaction, pose a burden.

Ultimately, the core issue that the political sphere seeks to clarify goes beyond whether Ruthnick currently holds Cantor shares. The question of whether the economic interests linking "Tether-Cantor-Ruthnick family" influenced U.S. government stablecoin and industrial policy decisions has emerged as the crux of the controversy.

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