Blumenthal probes Tether payments to Bo Hines’ consulting firm

Key points

• Sen. Blumenthal sent letters to Tether and Nxum Group on Oct. 22
• Nxum was co-founded by Bo Hines, now CEO of Tether's U.S. arm
• WSJ reported Nxum was paid for Tether work while Hines advised the White House
• Tether says outside counsel found no evidence of wrongdoing

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, opened an inquiry on Thursday into payments that stablecoin issuer Tether made to Nxum Group, a consulting firm started by Bo Hines, according to CoinDesk. Blumenthal sent letters on Oct. 22 to both Tether and Nxum.

Hines is a former White House crypto adviser and now serves as CEO of Tether’s U.S. arm. CoinDesk reported that Nxum was founded by Hines, his father and another partner.

What prompted the Senate inquiry

The letters follow a Wall Street Journal report from the previous week. The newspaper reported that Nxum received large payments for consulting work tied to Tether while Hines was still advising President Donald Trump on crypto policy, including policy affecting stablecoin issuers such as Tether, according to CoinDesk’s summary of the story.

Other outlets that followed the Journal report put the amount at about $6.3 million. Those accounts said the Tether arrangement dated to May 2025 and that Hines kept a one-third stake in the firm. Nxum has said Hines had no role in the Tether business while in government and has described his stake as passive, according to a summary of the coverage. Those figures come from secondary reports of the Journal’s findings and have not been independently confirmed by USA Daily.

In his letter to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Blumenthal wrote that the arrangement raises “alarming ethical and legal concerns,” CoinDesk reported. The senator asked for details of the business arrangements between the company and Nxum.

Tether’s response

Tether has said that outside counsel conducted an internal investigation and “found no evidence of wrongdoing,” according to CoinDesk.

Ardoino also criticized Blumenthal’s broader work on Tether during the week of Oct. 19. CoinDesk reported that he said the senator ignored key information and gave a report to the press before Tether had a chance to respond.

Part of a wider set of crypto probes

The Hines inquiry adds to a list of crypto-related matters Blumenthal has pursued. CoinDesk said they include Trump’s memecoin, World Liberty Financial, Binance, Tether’s links to Iran and Tether’s U.S. partner Cantor Fitzgerald.

CoinDesk also reported earlier that Nxum earned millions as the main campaign-advertising provider for a political action committee associated with Tether. Nxum has hired Harry Jung, another former White House crypto adviser, according to the outlet. The White House crypto office has been vacant since Patrick Witt, who replaced Hines as executive director, left.

Why the political stakes matter

Blumenthal is in the minority, so his requests carry no compulsory force. CoinDesk noted that if Democrats win control of the Senate and Blumenthal takes the subcommittee chair, he would gain stronger subpoena power. At the time of CoinDesk’s writing, the prediction market Kalshi gave Democrats a 69% chance of winning the Senate, according to the outlet.

It was not immediately clear whether Tether or Nxum would meet any response deadline set in the letters. The letter to Tether is posted on the committee’s website, but its full text could not be reviewed independently, so the specific requests described here rely on CoinDesk’s account.