Tether, issuer of the world's largest stablecoin, paid $6.3 million to Nxum, a consulting firm partly owned by Bo Hines, during the period he served as a White House adviser working on the stablecoin legislation that would later define the industry's regulatory landscape in the United States. Weeks after the law passed, Hines joined Tether as its US chief.
Nxum was founded by Hines together with his father, Todd Hines, and Gary Dennis. After joining the Trump administration in early 2025, Bo Hines retained a one-third ownership stake in the company.
According to the account, Todd Hines and Gary Dennis met Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino in New York in April 2025. The meeting produced an arrangement under which Tether agreed to pay $415,000 a month to Nxum for marketing and communication services.
The first payment, $2.49 million, was made in May 2025 and routed to Nxum through an intermediary. Further payments followed in December 2025 and April 2026, bringing the total Nxum earned from the arrangement to $6.3 million.
The GENIUS Act
The legislation Hines worked on in the White House, the GENIUS Act, set the first nationwide rules for stablecoins when it was signed into law in July 2025. Among its provisions was a transition period for exchanges to bring non-compliant stablecoins into line with the new rules, a window Hines had pushed to extend from an originally planned 18 months to three years. Under the rule, crypto exchanges must remove stablecoins that fail to meet the new requirements once the transition period ends.
Hines joined Tether as its US chief a few weeks after the GENIUS Act was signed.
Nxum has denied that Hines was involved in any business dealings with Tether during his time in the White House.
The Wall Street Journal, which reported the payments, summarised the sequence of events:
