The Wall Street Journal reports that Tether sent millions of dollars through a marketing arrangement to Nxum, a consulting business Bo Hines co-founded and continued to own while he led the White House's digital-assets council.
The payments overlapped with Hines' work on the GENIUS Act, the federal law that established a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Nxum says Hines did not know about or participate in the firm's Tether work while he was in government and received no money derived from Tether during that period.
Hines co-founded Nxum around 2022 with his father, Todd Hines, and marketing executive Gary Dennis. When Hines joined the administration in early 2025, he stepped away from day-to-day work but retained a one-third stake, according to the Journal.
How the payments moved
The Journal says Dennis arranged a marketing deal under which Nxum would help with a âstrategic brand and public affairs planâ for Tether. The contract was initially signed with Notorious, a marketing firm run by Peter Vincer, rather than with Nxum directly. It called for payments of $415,000 a month, billed in six-month installments, for at least two years.
On May 11, 2025, the first $2.49 million installment moved from the crypto exchange Bitfinex, which shares a parent company with Tether, to Vincer, according to payment records reviewed by the Journal. Vincer kept $498,000 and forwarded the rest to an Nxum wallet. The Journal says that money was then divided among Nxum's three partners.
After Hines left the White House, later $2.49 million installments in December 2025 and April 2026 went directly to wallets controlled by Nxum. The Journal reports that Nxum earned about $6.3 million from the arrangement.
The policy overlap
While Nxum's partners worked on the Tether account, Hines remained in a Signal group chat with them and shared updates about stablecoin legislation, the Journal reports. The paper says the partners were also communicating with Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino.
One point of debate was how long stablecoin issuers would have to comply with the new law. Hines encouraged lawmakers to extend that period from 18 months to 36 months, according to the Journal. The paper described Tether as the primary beneficiary because it would need more time than U.S. competitors to meet the requirements.
The chronology does not by itself establish that the payments drove Hines' policy position. Nxum said the longer transition period had support from multiple stakeholders and that Tether could, and did, advocate for the change using its market position.
President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act on July 18, 2025. Hines announced his departure from the White House on Aug. 9 and joined Tether the following month as chief executive of its new U.S. division.
