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Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has asked Tether to hand over records on its payments to Nxum, a consulting firm co-founded by former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines, according to Ambcrypto. The letter to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino follows a Wall Street Journal investigation into payments made while Hines helped shape U.S. stablecoin law.
Tether has denied wrongdoing, saying external counsel previously conducted an internal investigation that found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Also read: Tether Paid $6.3M to Firm Co-Founded by Bo Hines, WSJ Reports
Key facts
- Blumenthal asked Tether to clarify alleged payments and a potential conflict of interest; Ambcrypto and Decrypt report a Nov. 3 deadline, while News.bitcoin says both Tether and Nxum have until Nov. 6.
- Decrypt and News.bitcoin report Nxum earned about $6.3 million from a Tether deal struck in May 2025, while Ambcrypto cites $6.8 million in payouts to Nxum Group.
- Per Decrypt, Tether agreed to pay marketing firm Notorious $415,000 a month, and the first payment was passed to a wallet used by Nxum and split three ways; later payments went directly to Nxum after Hines left government.
- Decrypt reports Hines left the White House on Aug. 9, 2025, and was named CEO of Tether’s new U.S. division the following month; News.bitcoin says he was hired to lead its newly established U.S. operations.
- News.bitcoin reports Blumenthal sent a separate letter to Nxum CEO Todd Hines, Bo Hines’ father, and also sought records on a reported pitch that Tether would buy a 25% stake in Nxum for $56 million.
Deadline and scope of the request
Ambcrypto reports Blumenthal asked Tether to submit all payments to Bo Hines, including crypto wallet addresses, between January and August 2025, plus documentation of lobbying services Nxum offered Tether. Decrypt also reports that the letter cites the payment structure as suggesting Tether was likely well aware of the illegality and impropriety of paying a sitting official, and that the arrangement implicated federal ethics, anticorruption and lobbying laws. News.bitcoin quotes Blumenthal describing the highly unusual terms and nature of Tether’s business relationship with both Nxum and Bo Hines as raising alarming ethical and legal concerns.
The senator also asked about the arrangement with Notorious, the third-party marketing firm through which Tether reportedly routed payments while Hines was in government, according to Ambcrypto. Decrypt reports Hines kept a one-third stake in Nxum while serving in the White House and urged lawmakers to double the GENIUS Act’s compliance window from 18 to 36 months, a change that chiefly benefited Tether. A Nxum representative told the Journal that Hines was not involved in the Tether deal while in government and did not receive any Tether-derived funds during that period, per Decrypt and News.bitcoin.
Also read: Tether backs Saber Money for Asia-Pacific and Gulf payments expansion
Wider Tether scrutiny in the Senate
This is Blumenthal’s second Tether-linked letter this month. Decrypt reports that on Oct. 8 he asked Cantor Fitzgerald, Tether’s reserve custodian and a 5% shareholder, for records on that relationship, following a staff report finding that most Iran-linked wallets used USDT. Tether responded by citing about $550 million in Iran-linked freezes, including $344 million in April, according to Decrypt. News.bitcoin reports that Cantor Fitzgerald was previously led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and is now controlled by his sons. Ambcrypto reports the senator also pressed the Department of Justice to investigate Tether’s role in Iranian crypto illicit flows.
USDT adoption has continued to rise despite the scrutiny. Ambcrypto reports total USDT users crossed 700 million for the first time in Q3, a 6% quarterly increase, and that over $70 billion, or 39% of USDT supply, is now held by savers.
Why it matters
The probe tests whether payments routed through intermediaries to a firm partly owned by a former White House official will draw enforcement or legislative consequences, and it puts Tether’s U.S. expansion under congressional attention. It also arrives after the GENIUS Act set federal stablecoin rules, making the law’s compliance timeline a live political question. Most of the allegations remain unproven, and Tether disputes them.
What to watch
The immediate test is Tether’s response to Blumenthal’s records request, with outlets citing deadlines of Nov. 3 and Nov. 6. Any follow-up from the subcommittee, or a separate response from Nxum and Todd Hines, would indicate how far the inquiry proceeds.
Reported by ambcrypto.com.
Sources: AMBCrypto, Decrypt, News.bitcoin