"I am a fan of crypto, but let me be very specific: bitcoin, just bitcoin. These other coins, they are just not a thing," he said during an interview with CNBC's Money Movers podcast. Lutnick also said that he's a fan of Tether, as Cantor Fitzgerald is one of the stablecoin's custodians.

"I'm a big fan of this stablecoin called Tether," he said. "I hold their Treasuries. So I keep their Treasuries, and they have a lot of Treasuries," he said.

For Lutnick, bitcoin's value comes from its decentralization, something it hasn't struggled with, unlike Ethereum or other layer-1 blockchains.

"The only asset people could have held where no one could take it? Bitcoin," he said.

"With Tether, you can call Tether, and they'll freeze it," he said, alluding to Tether's recent freeze of wallets tied to sanctions. "With Ethereum, you can call Joe Lubin," he continued.

Joe Lubin is CEO of ConsenSys, an early supporter of Ethereum. Lubin has disavowed that he or Consensys have ever controlled more than half a percent of the total supply of Ethereum's ether [ETH].

CORRECTION (Dec. 14, 05:43 UTC): Removes reference to other custodians in second paragraph.

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Sam Reynolds

Sam Reynolds is a senior reporter based in Taipei. Sam was part of the CoinDesk team that won the 2023 Gerald Loeb award in the breaking news category for coverage of FTX's collapse. Prior to CoinDesk, he was a reporter with Blockworks and a semiconductor analyst with IDC.