A newly established super PAC, The Fellowship, has made its inaugural expenditure, allocating $300,000 towards 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 a former advisor to President Donald Trump. Despite its claims of transparency, The Fellowship PAC has not responded to inquiries about its formation, funding, or the payment that may benefit Tether's US CEO and his relative.
According to Michael Beckel, a representative of the political reform organization Issue One, setting up a super PAC and paying for services is not against US campaign-finance rules, provided the services are rendered at fair market value. The Fellowship PAC's advertising effort on behalf of House of Representatives candidate Fuller is not yet clear, apart from the disclosure that the money was given to the advertisement provider for his primary election effort. The PAC's disclosures do not demonstrate a significant accumulation of contributions to support other candidates, with its current accounts still showing zero, despite an announcement last year that it would be established with pledges of $100 million. 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, announcing its chairman would be Jesse Spiro, the vice president of regulatory affairs for Tether's US arm, and began listing endorsements for Republican politicians on its social media feed. The Fellowship PAC's first recipient of financial support, Fuller, is an incoming Republican member of the House of Representatives, who will still need campaign support for the upcoming primary and general election in his state.
The money spent by The Fellowship super PAC was an independent expenditure, meaning it had to be handled without strategizing with Fuller's campaign. As a candidate, Fuller has not publicly announced his position on crypto and does not have a grade at Stand With Crypto, an advocacy group that evaluates candidates' views.
The firm paid by The Fellowship PAC, Nxum, included Bo Hines among its owners when he filed ethics disclosures last year as a White House official. There is no federal record of Nxum as a regular service provider for additional political efforts. 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 was announced as a new PAC 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.
It is possible that some or all of the promised $100 million is in the PAC's coffers already, as federal disclosures typically trail behind the movements of money. 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. According to Beckel, massive spending by an industry is something that lawmakers are taking seriously and taking note of. The rival crypto super PAC, Fairshake, has expended millions in the early contests, and The Fellowship PAC's expenditure is still a drop in the bucket compared to Fairshake's receipts.
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.