Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick has reiterated his view that bitcoin is a commodity and should be treated under a framework closer to gold and oil than to traditional equities. In a post on X referencing his Fox Business interview with Maria Bartiromo, Lutnick said that once bitcoin is truly understood, it is difficult to classify it any other way.
A commodity view of bitcoin
During the interview, Bartiromo asked Lutnick about the differences between commodity regulation and equity regulation. Lutnick argued that, over a long enough time horizon, the two may gradually move closer together, suggesting that commodities and equities could in some way converge over the next 20 years. Even so, he stressed that regulators still do not appear to know how to handle crypto and digital assets properly.
He said regulators have not fully recognized that bitcoin is a commodity. In his view, BTC should be treated like gold and oil, because its nature is fundamentally that of a commodity. At the same time, Lutnick drew a line between bitcoin and the rest of the digital asset market, saying that other digital currencies and digital assets are different and should not automatically be grouped together with BTC.
Broader support from Cantor Fitzgerald
Lutnick’s latest remarks are consistent with his earlier public statements. In July, he wrote on X that he is a fan of bitcoin, that Cantor Fitzgerald is also supportive of bitcoin, and that the firm’s investment bank is already active in the digital asset space. He said the company is “just getting started.”
Earlier this month, Lutnick also said that over the past five years, bitcoin had remained something of an outsider to the traditional finance community, but is now beginning to enter global finance more meaningfully. He added that traditional finance wants new asset classes and that BTC is here to stay, with Cantor aiming to help bring bitcoin further into the financial mainstream.
Taken together, his comments reflect a broader Wall Street argument that bitcoin should be viewed less as a security-like anomaly and more as a commodity asset that can be integrated into the existing financial system under clearer rules.