Senator probes Tether’s reported $6 million payments to ex-White House crypto adviser’s firm

Tether faces US Senate scrutiny over multimillion-dollar payments to a consulting firm co-owned by a former White House crypto adviser.On Oct. 22, Senator Richard Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, demanded records on the stablecoin issuer's reported payments to Nxum, a consulting firm co-founded by Bo Hines, who helped develop the Trump administration's cryptocurrency policies.The inquiry follows reports that Tether sent more than $6 million to Nxum while Hines retained an ownership stake in the business and worked on legislation affecting the company's operations. Hines subsequently left the White House and became chief executive of Tether's US stablecoin business.In his letter to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Blumenthal wrote:Tether’s alleged multimillion-dollar payment to a firm controlled by the White House official primarily responsible for cryptocurrency policy implicates federal ethics, anticorruption, and lobbying laws.Payments raise questions over Tether's influence on stablecoin legislationThe controversy centers on the GENIUS Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2025 to establish a federal regulatory...