Brandon Lutnick, son of US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, is nearing a roughly $4bn deal with an early bitcoin supporter to buy billions of dollars in the digital tokens using a vehicle backed by Cantor Fitzgerald.

Cantor Equity Partners 1, a blank cheque vehicle that raised $200mn in cash in an initial public offering in January, is in late-stage talks with Adam Back, founder of crypto trading group Blockstream Capital, to buy more than $3bn in the digital currency, according to two people briefed on the talks.

The deal, which mirrors a $3.6bn crypto buying venture Brandon Lutnick struck with SoftBank and Tether in April, would advance Cantor Fitzgerald’s strategy of using publicly listed shell companies to buy bitcoin as it aims to take advantage of a surge in digital currency prices amid US President Donald Trump’s deregulatory push. Howard Lutnick handed control of Cantor Fitzgerald to his children in May.