The Fellowship PAC, a cryptocurrency-focused political action committee linked to Tether, has disclosed its first expenditure, with $300,000 spent on advertising for Georgia Republican Clay Fuller through Nxum Group, a firm co-founded by Bo Hines, the chief executive of Tether's US arm and former adviser to President Donald Trump. The PAC, which claims to be rooted in transparency, has not responded to questions about its formation, funding, or the payment that may benefit Hines and his relative. According to Michael Beckel, a political reform expert, setting up a super PAC and paying oneself for services is not against US campaign-finance rules as long as the services are provided at fair market value.
The PAC's first advertising effort is on behalf of House of Representatives candidate Fuller, but the details of the effort are not yet clear. Despite an announcement last year that the PAC would be established with pledges of $100 million, its current accounts show no contributions.
An outside spokesperson for Tether stated that Tether International has no affiliation or oversight over the Fellowship PAC. The PAC became active again this month when it announced its chairman would be Jesse Spiro, the vice president of regulatory affairs for Tether's US arm. The Fellowship PAC says it will begin actively supporting candidates who recognize the importance of fostering economic growth and reinforcing the US as the global leader in next-generation financial infrastructure. The PAC's first recipient of financial support, Fuller, is an incoming Republican member of the House of Representatives.
The money spent by the Fellowship super PAC was an independent expenditure, meaning it had to be handled without strategizing with Fuller's campaign. The firm paid by the Fellowship PAC, Nxum, was co-founded by Hines, who filed ethics disclosures last year as a White House official. It is unclear whether financial ties remain between Hines and Nxum.
The PAC's treasurer, Mitchell Nobel, is an executive at Cantor Fitzgerald, a firm that manages assets for Tether's global operation. When the Fellowship PAC was announced last year, it was presented as a contrast to previous political engagement, aiming to help the broader crypto ecosystem and not narrow or individual interests.
The PAC's disclosures do not yet demonstrate a stockpile of contributions to back other candidates, and its current accounts show no balance. The relatively young Tether US's stablecoin, USAT, has a market cap of about $37 million, suggesting the firm may not have the independent resources yet to fund a major PAC. The US midterm elections are already underway, with many of the hotly contested primaries already past or about to happen. If the US House is taken over by a Democratic majority, the committees there will likely shift their agenda to challenge Trump's legislative efforts and investigate the administration's actions.