An investigation by the Wall Street Journal reports that Bo Hines, who served as the White House's top crypto adviser, helped shape a landmark stablecoin law while a consulting firm he co-owned collected millions of dollars from Tether, the industry's largest stablecoin issuer. Shortly after leaving the government, Hines joined Tether's new U.S. division.

According to the investigation, Nxum, a consulting firm Hines cofounded in 2022, earned $6.3 million under an agreement to develop a “strategic brand and public affairs plan” for El Salvador–based Tether. The payments began while Hines, then 29, was leading the White House's push for the Genius Act, a law regulating stablecoins—cryptocurrencies pegged to the.S. dollar that have grown into a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The legislation, signed in July 2025, created the first comprehensive federal framework for payment stablecoins, requiring issuers to hold reserves and operate under federal oversight. Hines reportedly stepped back from managing the firm upon joining the administration but retained his one-third ownership stake.

Hines departed the White House weeks after President Donald Trump signed the bill into law in July 2025. Tether hired him the following month to lead its newly established U.S. division, while the company continued paying millions to Nxum, per the Journal. Tether's flagship token, USDT, is the largest stablecoin by circulation, making the company's push into a newly regulated U.S. market one of the law's most closely watched storylines.

The allegations intensify scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest between the Trump administration's crypto policies and the private business interests of the president and his advisers. The episode also feeds a long-running Washington debate over the “revolving door” between officials who help write policy and the industries they later join. Trump has championed the industry and pressed Congress to pass crypto legislation while his family has launched ventures including his namesake memecoin and World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform. His most recent financial disclosure revealed $1.4 billion in crypto-related wealth, largely tied to those two ventures, as Fortune reported in July.

Hines founded Nxum in 2022 alongside his father, Todd Hines, and marketing executive Gary Dennis, with each partner holding an equal ownership stake. The small firm described its business as spanning media, consulting, and investments. Beyond the three founders, its website reportedly listed a single employee: chief investment officer Nav Singh, who was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to fraud in a bribery case involving New York's state pension fund.

Ahead of the 2024 election, Nxum's work included helping create Restore the Republic, a Trump-themed memecoin, and contributing $1 million in billboard advertising to MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump.

The potential Tether deal began taking shape in April 2025, when Peter Vincer, a marketing entrepreneur who had collaborated with Nxum on earlier business ventures, arranged for Todd Hines and Dennis to meet Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino near Central Park in New York, according to the Journal. At the time, Bo Hines was working to advance the Genius Act from inside the White House.

Vincer reportedly followed up with a draft “Tether Comprehensive Brand Plan” proposing that Nxum oversee “strategic lobbying and a full scale public relations and media awareness campaign” for the stablecoin issuer.

The final agreement dropped references to lobbying, with Vincer's agency, Notorious, signing the contract with Tether as an intermediary for Nxum. Nxum was nonetheless expected to carry out the work: a planning document stated that “Nxum will engage all necessary parties and lead the entire process,” the Journal reported.

With Hines now leading Tether's U.S. division in a market the Genius Act governs, whether the Journal's findings draw formal responses from lawmakers or federal ethics officials—and how Tether's American expansion proceeds—will shape what comes next.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.