- Sen. Richard Blumenthal has demanded Tether hand over records on its dealings with Bo Hines and Nxum by Nov. 3.
- The Wall Street Journal reported Nxum earned $6.3 million from a Tether deal while Hines helped craft the GENIUS Act.
- Tether says an external investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, while Nxum says Hines received no Tether-derived funds while in government.
- Blumenthal also sought details on a Nxum pitch deck proposing a $56 million Tether investment.
Tether is facing fresh Senate scrutiny over millions of dollars that reportedly flowed to a firm co-owned by Bo Hines while he helped shape U.S. stablecoin law at the White House.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino a letter Thursday demanding records of the company’s dealings with Hines and Nxum by Nov. 3.
The request builds on an Oct. 14 Wall Street Journal investigation reporting that Nxum earned $6.3 million from a Tether deal struck in May 2025. Hines was executive director of President Donald Trump‘s crypto advisory council and a key architect of the GENIUS Act, signed in July 2025.
He left the White House on Aug. 9, 2025, and Tether named him CEO of its U.S. division the following month. The Journal reported that Hines kept his one-third Nxum stake while in government and urged lawmakers to double the law’s compliance window from 18 to 36 months, a change that chiefly benefited Tether.
Blumenthal wrote that the payment structure suggests Tether “was likely well aware of the illegality and impropriety” of paying a sitting official. The arrangement “implicates federal ethics, anticorruption, and lobbying laws,” he added.
A Nxum representative told the Journal that Hines wasn’t involved in the deal and “did not receive any Tether-derived funds during that period.” Tether said external counsel conducted an internal investigation that “found no evidence of wrongdoing.”
Consequently, Blumenthal also asked about a Nxum pitch deck proposing Tether buy a 25% stake for $56 million. The letter marks his second Tether-linked inquiry this month, following an Oct. 8 request to Cantor Fitzgerald over its role as Tether’s reserve custodian.
Meanwhile, Blumenthal’s staff previously reported that most Iran-linked wallets used USDT, though Tether cited roughly $550 million in Iran-linked freezes, including $344 million in April.
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