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Senator Richard Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has demanded records from Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino over more than $6 million in reported payments to Nxum, a consulting firm co-founded by former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines, according to cryptoslate.com and decrypt.co. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nxum earned $6.3 million from a Tether deal struck in May 2025 while Hines, who kept a one-third stake, helped craft the GENIUS Act, decrypt.co reported. Blumenthal's letter, sent Thursday, gives Tether until Nov. 3 to respond, decrypt.co said, while cryptoslate.com reported a Nov. 6 deadline. Tether said external counsel found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Background

The inquiry centers on the GENIUS Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July 2025 to establish a federal regulatory framework for dollar-backed stablecoins, according to cryptoslate.com. Hines was executive director of the White House's digital asset advisory council and a key architect of the legislation, decrypt.co reported. He left the White House on Aug. 9, 2025, and Tether named him CEO of its new U.S. division the following month, according to decrypt.co. Blumenthal's letter builds on an Oct. 14 Wall Street Journal investigation, decrypt.co said. The Journal reported that Tether agreed in May 2025 to pay a marketing firm, Notorious, $415,000 a month, and the firm passed most of the first payment to a wallet used by Nxum, where it was split three ways; later payments went directly to Nxum after Hines left government, decrypt.co reported. Hines kept his one-third stake in Nxum while serving in the White House, the Journal reported, and urged lawmakers to double the law's compliance window from 18 to 36 months, a change that chiefly benefited Tether, according to decrypt.co. A Nxum representative told the Journal that Hines wasn't involved in the Tether deal while in government and did not receive any Tether-derived funds during that period, decrypt.co reported. This is Blumenthal's second Tether-linked letter this month; on Oct. 8 he asked Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether's reserve custodian and a 5% shareholder chaired by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's son, for records on that relationship, decrypt.co said.

What happened

According to cryptoslate.com, Senator Richard Blumenthal on Oct. 22 demanded records on Tether'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 and worked on legislation affecting the company's operations, cryptoslate.com reported. In his letter to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Blumenthal wrote that 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, according to cryptoslate.com. Decrypt.co reported that Blumenthal gave Tether until Nov. 3 to respond, while cryptoslate.com said he wants payment records and communications by Nov. 6. According to Blumenthal's letter, which cited The Wall Street Journal, Tether agreed in May 2025 to pay Nxum $415,000 per month for strategic lobbying, public relations, and other advisory services, cryptoslate.com reported. At the time, Hines served as executive director of the White House's digital asset advisory council and retained a one-third ownership interest in Nxum, the senator alleged. Decrypt.co reported that the Journal found Nxum earned $6.3 million from the deal, that Tether agreed to pay Notorious $415,000 a month, and that the firm passed most of the first payment to a wallet used by Nxum, where it was split three ways. Blumenthal also cited allegations that Nxum later offered Notorious head Peter Vincer more than $300,000 and a share of future payments in exchange for signing a nondisclosure agreement, cryptoslate.com reported. Tether said in a statement that external counsel previously conducted an in-depth internal investigation into the matter, which found no evidence of wrongdoing, according to decrypt.co.

Market impact

The sources provide no market data tied to the Tether inquiry. The only price figures in the provided texts come from coindesk.com, which reported that bitcoin dipped to about $81,000 late Thursday and traded near $81,500 early Friday, down 0.4% over 24 hours and below $82,500, the support it lost on Thursday. Altcoins were mixed: BNB was up nearly 2% to about $745, DOGE added about 1%, XMR fell 7% to about $607, ZEC lost nearly 4% to about $1,200, and HYPE, XRP, ether and SOL slipped about 1% or less, with ether just under $2,400, according to CoinDesk data. Stocks were little changed, with Nasdaq 100 futures flat after the index's worst day since June, while Brent crude touched its highest level since early May, coindesk.com reported. Separately, cointelegraph.com reported that Bitcoin's seven-day average hashrate recovered above 1 zettahash per second, its highest level since March 3, and that mining difficulty increased 5.92% on Oct. 16, with BlocksBridge projecting another 5.16% increase at the next adjustment. None of these figures are attributed to the Tether controversy.

Why it matters

The sources frame the inquiry as a test of whether Tether's financial ties improperly influenced crypto policy during the drafting of the GENIUS Act, which established US stablecoin regulations, according to cryptoslate.com. Blumenthal alleged that Hines joined discussions about the legislation while his business partners coordinated lobbying with Tether executives, and accused Hines of advocating changes that would particularly benefit Tether, including provisions allowing foreign stablecoin issuers additional time to meet US regulatory requirements, cryptoslate.com reported. Those accommodations carried considerable commercial significance for Tether because its flagship USDT stablecoin operates through an offshore issuance structure, according to cryptoslate.com. Decrypt.co reported that the Journal found Hines urged lawmakers to double the law's compliance window from 18 to 36 months, a change that chiefly benefited Tether. The senator has requested transaction records, associated cryptocurrency wallet addresses, and communications to establish the purpose of the intermediary arrangement and identify the parties that ultimately received the funds, cryptoslate.com reported. Blumenthal's inquiry has not established that Tether or Hines violated federal law, and the subcommittee's Democratic minority issued the requests, cryptoslate.com noted. Decrypt.co reported that the letter is Blumenthal's second Tether-linked letter this month, following an Oct. 8 request to Cantor Fitzgerald over its relationship with Tether.