WSJ: Bo Hines kept stake in firm paid by Tether while pushing stablecoin bill

Bo Hines, the former White House crypto adviser who later joined Tether, reportedly kept a one-third stake in an investment firm that profited from a Tether deal while he was pressing Congress to pass the GENIUS stablecoin act. The allegations come from a Wall Street Journal report published on Wednesday and summarised by Cointelegraph.

What the WSJ reported

• Hines co-founded Nxum and, according to the Journal, kept roughly a third of the company while serving in government.
• Nxum received $6.3 million under an arrangement with Tether, issuer of USDT; the first payment reportedly arrived while Hines was still at the White House.
• He allegedly briefed his Nxum partners on the bill's progress over Signal and urged them to describe Republican opponents as "undermining the president".

Tether did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph's request for comment. Hines has not publicly addressed the report in the coverage so far.

Background

The GENIUS Act, the first U.S. federal framework for payment stablecoins, was signed into law in July 2025; Hines attended the signing and was singled out by President Trump. He joined Tether as a strategic adviser in August 2025 and became chief executive of its U.S. arm a month later.

The law takes effect in January 2027, once regulators including the OCC, FDIC, Federal Reserve and Treasury finish writing the detailed rules.

Why it matters

The story adds to scrutiny of conflicts of interest around Washington's crypto policy. Trump disclosed $1.4 billion in 2025 income linked to digital assets, including from his family's World Liberty Financial, which issues the USD1 stablecoin. Cointelegraph also points to a steady "revolving door": former CFTC commissioner Summer Mersinger now runs the Blockchain Association, and ex-CFTC counsel Kevin Webb has just joined Solidus Labs.

For how payment stablecoins work, see What is a stablecoin?