Nxum, a small consulting firm that Bo Hines co-owned while he led the White House’s stablecoin push, has taken in about $6.3 million under a marketing deal with Tether, the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 14. The first installment was paid in May 2025, before the GENIUS Act became law.
Hines was executive director of the White House’s digital assets council, formally the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets. He also held a one-third stake in Nxum, a firm he started with his father, Todd Hines, and marketing executive Gary Dennis. According to the Journal, his ethics disclosures show he kept that stake after stepping back from running the company in early 2025. Tether later hired him to lead its new U.S. division.
The Journal said its account rests on messages, internal documents and payment records it reviewed. Unchained has not independently verified those records. Tether did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Unchained. Unchained could not reach Nxum or Hines for comment.
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How the Money Moved
The Journal said it traced the money through blockchain records. Nxum did not sign with Tether directly; the contract went to Notorious, a marketing firm run by Peter Vincer, at $415,000 a month, billed six months at a time over at least two years. Tether’s first installment, $2.49 million, left Bitfinex, an exchange under the same parent company, on May 11, 2025. Vincer held back $498,000 and forwarded the remainder to an Nxum wallet. After Hines left government, the contract moved to Nxum, and installments of the same size landed in its wallets in December 2025 and April 2026.
The Journal reported, citing people involved in the negotiations, that Hines pressed lawmakers to lengthen the law’s compliance window to 36 months from 18. Tether needed more time than its U.S. competitors to comply and was the main beneficiary of the longer period, according to the report. Hines passed talking points to his Nxum partners in June 2025 while they were in contact with Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, the Journal reported, citing Signal messages.
On Aug. 9, 2025, 22 days after Trump signed the GENIUS Act, Hines said he was leaving the White House. He joined Tether in September.
Denials and Responses
A Nxum representative reportedly told the Journal that Hines was unaware of and uninvolved in the firm’s Tether business while in the White House, and that he “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.” The representative reportedly added that “it was not necessary for Tether to enter into any payment arrangements, as it could (and did) simply use the weight of its market position to advocate for an extension of the compliance period.”
Tether reportedly did not respond to the Journal’s requests for comment. A White House official reportedly told the paper that Hines no longer works there and that staff are expected to follow federal ethics rules.
The Nxum-linked Fellowship PAC, which is chaired by Tether government affairs head Jesse Spiro, paid Nxum Group $6.55 million across five disbursements between January and April 2026, mostly for issue advocacy advertising, the Journal reported, citing Federal Election Commission records.
Tether is already under scrutiny in Washington. Last month, Sen. Richard Blumenthal urged Treasury and the Justice Department to investigate the company after Democratic staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report on Iran’s use of USDT.
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