Tether sent funds to Bo Hines' firm during his White House role, WSJ alleges

Prior to taking the role of CEO at Tether-supported stablecoin USAT, Bo Hines served as executive director of the President's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets under President Donald Trump.

During his White House tenure, when he was pushing for stablecoin regulation, Tether — the biggest stablecoin globally — was said to be collaborating with Nxum Capital, a firm co-founded by Hines and his father.

The Wall Street Journal reported that “Nxum has earned $6.3 million” from the agreement to develop a “strategic brand and public affairs plan” for Tether.

The funds, it appears, moved through Tether-affiliated exchange Bitfinex to Notorious, a company run by Peter Vincer. Vincer then passed the bulk of the money to Nxum.

According to the report, Tether made an initial $2.49 million transfer from Bitfinex to Vincer on May 11, 2025. Vincer retained $498,000 and forwarded the remainder to an Nxum wallet, where it was divided into three portions.

On the same date, the address 0x77134cbC06cB00b66F4c7e623D5fdBF6777635EC, labeled “Bitfinex: Hot Wallet” on Etherscan, transferred $2.49 million in USDT to 0x4b3e4956a5Bf253Cf28f8cf9b9F71BfD100E98Fd via two transactions. A $1 test transfer had taken place the previous day.

After that, all funds except $498,000 were moved to the address 0xA6078664175FCfb093989EC778C03FAe58170814.

The WSJ reported that the funds were then divided three ways. While exact confirmation is not possible, the transactions align with the known details.

Vincer reportedly informed the WSJ that he acted as intermediary for the arrangement, and once Hines departed the White House, the contract shifted straight to Nxum.

A spokesperson for Nxum told the WSJ that Hines “did not receive any Tether-derived funds during that period, and had no economic relationship of any kind with Tether while serving in the White House.”

During his time at the White House, Hines was reportedly still communicating with his business partners via Signal. He discussed specifics of the Genius Act with Nxum executives who were collaborating with Tether.

Nxum has also engaged in political activity, backing the Fellowship PAC.

The super PAC is chaired by Jesse Spiro, Tether's head of government affairs. It has raised $11 million, of which $10 million came from Cantor Fitzgerald, a Tether custodian formerly led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The remaining $1 million came from Anchor Labs, Inc., a company linked to Anchorage Digital, the bank that supports USAT.

The super PAC has disbursed $11 million to Nxum, although a refund of $300,000 also occurred.

The GENIUS Act was signed into law in July 2025, with Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino attending the White House to show support. The following month, Hines announced his departure from the White House.

In the subsequent month, it was revealed that Hines would become head of USAT, with Tether citing his entrepreneurial background as a reason.

Protos contacted Tether for a statement (and also attempted to reach Nxum, but its prior email address is no longer working), but received no immediate reply.