Howard Lutnick, US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary, aims to launch a $2 billion project to lend dollars to clients who supply Bitcoin as collateral, according to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter on Nov. 24.

Funding for the program will start at $2 billion and is “expected to eventually reach into the tens of billions,” one of the sources told Bloomberg.

Lutnick’s financial services firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, currently provides custody services to Tether. It uses it to hold the billions of dollars of US Treasuries that act as reserves for its USDT stablecoin.

Cantor Tether Partnership

As Lutnick prepares for a US government position, he is planning to hand over his firm’s relationship with Tether to colleagues. Brandon Lutnick, his son who works at Cantor as a trader, has previously interned with Tether in Lugano, Switzerland, Bloomberg noted.

“Tether Investments is looking to use part of the profits generated in the past years for different opportunities,” a Tether spokesperson told Reuters.

Cantor announced the Bitcoin financing project in June, stating at the time, “We are excited to help unlock Bitcoin’s full potential and continue bridging the gap between traditional finance and digital assets.”

Additionally, Cantor struck a deal to invest in Tether with a stake valued at as much as $600 million, equating to about a 5% ownership interest, according to a Wall Street Journal report over the weekend.

“I wonder if that’s an older share purchase, dating back to a lower interest rate period