The Wall Street Journal reported that Hines kept in contact with his partners at Nxum, updating them on progress with the $GENIUS Act through the Signal app while serving as Trump’s crypto adviser.
He also reportedly pressed the Nxum partner to label any Republican lawmakers opposing the stablecoin bill as “undermining the president” and “bought and paid for by democratic shills like Coinbase and a16z.” Hines joined Tether as a “strategic adviser” in August 2025, becoming CEO of its US arm the following month.
The reported deal between a former White House official and a crypto company continues to shine a spotlight on accusations that Trump and his family and staff are personally benefitting from laws they help to draft and pass. The president disclosed earning $1.4 billion from investments tied to digital assets in 2025, which included millions of dollars from his family’s crypto company World Liberty Financial, behind the issuance of the USD1 stablecoin.
The $GENIUS Act passed Congress and was signed into law in July 2025 in a ceremony attended by many cryptocurrency executives, including those behind stablecoins like Tether and Circle. Hines was in attendance and personally recognized by Trump at the event.
Though it was signed into law in 2025, the $GENIUS stablecoin bill requires rules from government agencies overseeing the tokens, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Reserve Board and Treasury Department. The law is scheduled to go into effect in January 2027.
Cointelegraph reached out to Tether for comment on the accusations in the report but did not receive an immediate response.
‘Revolving door’ of US policymakers to crypto companies continues
Several figures previously in government have left to become executives or advisers to digital asset companies. In addition to Hines joining Tether, Summer Mersinger, a former commissioner with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), resigned her position three years before her term was scheduled to end for a position as CEO of the crypto advocacy group Blockchain Association.
On Wednesday, Solidus Labs announced that Kevin Webb, a former CFTC senior counsel and adviser to former Commissioner Brian Quintenz, would join the fintech company as its vice president of policy. Webb isn’t the first former commissioner at the company, as the CFTC’s Dawn Stump left the agency in 2022 to join Solidus as a “strategic adviser.”