Trump's former crypto chief Bo Hines faces scrutiny over Tether payments

The Wall Street Journal reported that Bo Hines, who ran the White House's crypto policy office from January to August 2025, co-owned the consulting firm Nxum, which collected $6.3 million from Tether while he was shaping the GENIUS Act. According to the Journal, payments to Nxum began while Hines still held the title of executive director of the President's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets. The firm's contract with Tether was described as a "strategic brand and public affairs plan." Hines retained his one-third stake in Nxum for the entire period he worked in the White House, and he disclosed that ownership on his federal ethics filings, as the law requires. Disclosure, however, is not the same as recusal, and reporting so far does not indicate that he stepped back from stablecoin policy work.

Hines left the White House in August 2025, weeks after President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law in July. Tether hired him the following month to lead its new U.S. division while continuing to pay Nxum. The GENIUS Act establishes the first federal framework governing stablecoin reserves, which may include cash, short-dated Treasury bills, repurchase agreements, and money market funds, and it places issuers above $10 billion in circulation under Office of the Comptroller of the Currency oversight. Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, falls well above that threshold.

Scrutiny of Tether's reserves has intensified in parallel. Its BDO Italia attestation showed excess reserves falling from $8.23 billion in the first quarter of 2026 to $4.11 billion by the end of June, while circulating USDT grew by roughly $446 million over the same period. Tether has since engaged KPMG to audit the reserves backing USDT, covering assets, liabilities, internal controls, and financial reporting. The Journal's reporting does not establish that Hines influenced the legislation.

Separately, a Tether-linked super PAC, Fellowship, reportedly made its first ad buy through a firm founded by Tether's U.S. CEO, according to Coindesk's April reporting. Court filings have also alleged that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Hines pushed bill language that benefited Tether, according to crypto outlets covering those filings. Lutnick's family has documented financial ties to Tether through Cantor Fitzgerald, which acts as custodian for the company's Treasury holdings. Tether has not responded publicly to the Hines and Nxum allegations, and has broadly denied wrongdoing on compliance matters. Nxum has reportedly denied that Hines was involved in its dealings with Tether during his government service.