US financial giant Cantor Fitzgerald officially opened its $2 billion Bitcoin-backed loan service today, beginning with prominent clients FalconX and Maple Finance. This represents another facet of Cantor’s new crypto-focused strategy.
Although the crypto loan industry has fallen in prominence in the last year, centralized institutions could give it new life. Cantor’s plan doesn’t have a lot of publicly available details, but the firm seems quite committed to crypto.
Cantor Fitzgerald’s Bitcoin-Backed Loans
Crypto-backed lending is a large and growing sector of the industry, with firms making huge investments in the last few months. Token lending is typically a paradigm for DeFi ecosystems, but major institutions are beginning to accept crypto as collateral.
Today, investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald is joining that trend with its own $2 billion Bitcoin-backed loan protocol.
Cantor Fitzgerald first announced these Bitcoin-backed loan plans last July, and this vision is finally bearing fruit. Although the firm’s own press release didn’t detail specific clients, other coverage noted two rising stars as its first participants.
FalconX, a prominent crypto broker, and Maple Finance, another crypto lending platform, reportedly entered deals with Cantor.
FalconX apparently agreed to “part of a broader credit framework” with Cantor Fitzgerald, intending to receive loans over $100 million. The firm has been making huge profits, planning to expand into the derivatives market.
Maple Finance, whose new token has turned into a top performer, also closed the first tranche of a deal with an unspecified loan size.
Maple Finance SYRUP Token Price Since Launch in November 2024. Source: CoinGecko
Brandon Lutnick, son of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has been significantly expanding the firm’s operations in recent months.
In addition to Bitcoin-backed loans, Cantor Fitzgerald is partnering with Tether and spearheading the effort for a new Bitcoin investment firm. These efforts represent a comprehensive new crypto strategy for the bank.
“Cantor recognized the transformative impact digital asset financial services would have on the global economy. This achievement highlights how the combination of Cantor’s deep expertise and entrepreneurial spirit creates a distinct advantage on Wall Street and further solidifies our position as a leading investment bank for crypto,” claimed Chairman Brandon Lutnick.
Unfortunately, Cantor Fitzgerald’s press release doesn’t provide many specific details about this Bitcoin-backed loan program. It specifies that loans are only available to institutional investors, but otherwise, the firm uses generalized language.
The “initial phase” will allow “up to $2 billion” in total loans, but future expansion remains a mystery.
Still, Cantor Fitzgerald’s loans could give DeFi-native firms a great way to access new liquidity and better integrate with TradFi markets.
This program further cements the growing prominence of crypto-backed loans. Although the total crypto loan market substantially shrank between 2023 and 2024, traditional investment banks could take it in a new direction.
