Wall Street investment bank Cantor said on Tuesday it has executed the first transaction of its new bitcoin BTC lending business as part of the firm’s plan to offer $2 billion in financing.
The first firms to secure financing from the credit facility include Maple Finance, a crypto lender with over $1.8 billion of assets on its platform, and FalconX, a digital asset prime brokerage.
The Wall Street giant announced its plan to launch the business in July, saying it wanted to build a platform to support bitcoin investors’ financing needs.
“Institutions holding bitcoin are looking to broaden their access to diverse funding sources, and we are excited to support their liquidity needs to help them drive long term growth and success,” said Christian Wall, co-CEO and global head of fixed income at Cantor.
Cantor Fitzgerald also manages stablecoin issuer Tether’s stockpile of U.S. Treasuries that backs the value of the $142 billion USDT stablecoin. The firm’s former CEO, Howard Lutnick, currently serves as the Secretary of Commerce and has been a vocal proponent of integrating BTC into traditional finance.